Nouadhibou Ship Cemetery

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Location of the Nouadhibou Ship Cemetery
Rotting ship, behind it a half-sunken wreck
Ships at the ship graveyard

The Nouadhibou Ship Cemetery is a large ship cemetery in the east of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula in Mauritania , outside of Nouadhibou , the second largest city in the country. The ships are in various stages of decay and are partly stuck on the shore or swimming a few hundred meters away on the sea.

The ships are protected against the waves and currents of the Atlantic Ocean . Most of the wrecks are located in Cansado Bay, southeast of the city center, with some ships possibly lying in Baie du Repos northeast of the city. In 2010 there were still crew members living on one or two ships who, on behalf of the ship owners , guarded the valuable equipment on the ships - mostly radar and radio systems.

For years, the authorities allowed ships in the bays to be decommissioned and derelict. In 2004, an expedition from Oxford University counted 104 ships that at least partially protruded above the surface of the water, and 22 ships below the surface. By far the largest number of ships were built around 1955 to 1980 and were abandoned after 1984. Until 1979 Mauritania did not have its own fishing fleet, but issued licenses to foreign fishermen. The ship graveyard grew dramatically when the Mauritanian fishing industry was nationalized and inexperienced fishermen - partly because of overfishing - bought unprofitable or in poor condition ships and later left them to deteriorate. The Mauritanian fishing fleet was generally in poor condition, despite a repair service that opened in Nouadhibou in 1989: in 1992 only around 50% of the vessels were operational. - In addition to fishing ships, there are also individual vehicles of the Mauritanian Navy in the ship cemetery off Nouadhibou.

In 1999, the Mauritania Ministry of Fisheries tried to have the wrecks removed: The French company ETR was supposed to break up the ships and send them to Europe for recycling for the symbolic price of one franc per tonne . When ETR came to Nouadhibou with its device, however, the ship owners protested and demanded compensation, whereupon ETR - out of fear of a legal dispute - terminated the contract.

Since the Nouadhibou ship cemetery poses an environmental risk (mainly due to oil loss) and also hinders shipping traffic in the shallow channels to the port, the European Union provided two million euros for the removal of the wrecks (as of 2004). The wrecks were then to be towed to the middle of the nearby bay of Baie du Lévrier , which is deep enough to avoid problems for shipping. There the wrecks should also increase the fish population as a new habitat .

The plans were later changed, in 2006 the EU Commission made available 26.2 million euros in order to achieve "improvement of navigability, compliance with safety standards in the Bay of Nouadhibou, environmental protection and strengthening of administrative capacities". For this purpose, 55 of the wrecks are to be towed to a storage site further north in the bay ( Plage Nord , French "north beach"; between Pointe Rey in the east and Port Artisanal in the west). The 55 wrecks whose pollutants are to be disposed of before storage are partly below the surface of the water and / or are no longer buoyant. The tender for the project ran until May 7, 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Berny Sèbe, Paul Holland, Daniel Richelet (2005): Mauritania 2004. Bulletin of the OUEC, Vol. 1 (overview of the expedition to the ship cemetery in Nouadhibou) (link could no longer be accessed on September 13, 2010 )
  2. ↑ (Mauretania :) Fishing on www.country-studies.com (accessed on September 13, 2010)
  3. ↑ a b Mauritania - Fishing at www.nationsencyclopedia.com (accessed on September 13, 2010)
  4. ↑ Mauritania seeks to scrap ships. American Metal Market (link could not be accessed on September 13, 2010)
  5. ↑ (23 August 2006) Commission provides € 26 million for a project to salvage shipwrecks in the Bay of Nouadhibou in Mauritania. IP / 06/1119 (PDF; accessed September 13, 2010)
  6. ↑ Mauritanië: EDF - removal of 55 wrecks and abandoned ships in Nouadhibou bay (April 6, 2006) (authority of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs) (link could no longer be accessed on September 13, 2010)
  7. ↑ Mauritanië: EDF - removal of 55 wrecks in Nouadhibou bay (authority of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs) (English; link could no longer be accessed on September 13, 2010)

Web links

Commons : Nouadhibou Ship Cemetery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 20 ° 53 '58 "  N , 17 ° 1' 33"  W.