Moroccan Ports See Boon in Fishing

Dakhla fishing port is one of the country’s key ports, generating 65 percent of national fishing production. The fish market is located next to the port and has been there since 2016. It is among a new generation of large halls such as similar ones in Agadir, Larache and El Jadida. This kind of seafood marketing infrastructure is beneficial to the quality of the product and also gives transparency to the commercial transactions which take place here. 12 kilometres from Dakhl, is the largest fishing village of Lassarga where the Atlantic Ocean and Oued Eddahab bay meet. There are a total of six fishing villages in this area which are dedicated to artisanal fishing boats. More than 3000 of them operate in these fishing villages, including over 1000 in Lassarga alone. They mainly specialise in octopus fishing. There are three types of fishing in Dakhla, deep-sea, artisanal and coastal fishing. For this there are 24 deep-sea fishing vessels and 183 coastal fishing vessels which are monitored by satellite (Vessel Monitoring System). There are also 11 aquaculture farms, 4 shipping centres and 1 hatchery. Dakhla’s aquaculture production for 2019 was 630 tonnes. Mustapha Ouchkeni, a sea fishing delegate in Dakhla, says investing in extra resources and technology for fisheries has paid off. One of the most significant companies in Dakhla’s fishing sector is the King Pelagique Group, created in 2004 to fish, process and freeze large quantities of pelagic fish. It has a unit specialised in treating and freezing fish with a production capacity of 80,000 tonnes per year, and a capacity of freezing up to 250 tonnes per day. It also has a unit specialised in canning with a production capacity of 500,000 cans per day. The group has four RSW ships which are equipped with cooling systems in order to maintain the quality of the fish they catch.

SOURCE: AFRICA NEWS