Subject to the provisions of article 41, fishing vessels authorized to operate in waters under Mauritanian jurisdiction are required to land their products and catch in the ports of Mauritania. Landing means the actual bringing ashore of all fished products for storage, treatment or processing and export. All marine animals or parts of marine animals including their eggs and milks, but excluding aquatic mammals, frogs and aquatic animals that are subject to special conservation regulations, are considered fishery products within the meaning of the Fisheries Act and regulations made thereunder.

Exemptions from the obligation to land products provided for in articles 33 and 40 above may be granted to fishing vessels operating under foreign regulations, for technical, economic or general policy reasons. In this case, they are obliged to transship their catches in the harbor under the supervision of the competent State departments. The amount of fees, payments or other benefits received by the State in respect of the activity of each foreign vessel exempted from the landing obligation will include, in addition to the amount of fees, payments or other benefits required of each similar vessel required to land catches in Mauritania, a compensatory amount for the non-landing of catches. However, no exemption from the provisions of article 40 may be granted to cephalopod vessels or to vessels intended for the capture of species for which the fisheries management and development plan excludes any exemption. In order to ensure effective compliance with the obligation to land products or catches in Mauritania, the procedures for monitoring and controlling tides and careening operations of fishing vessels are defined by order of the Minister responsible for fisheries.

A decree taken in the Council of Ministers on the report of the Minister responsible for fisheries designates the Mauritanian port(s) authorized to receive foreign fishing vessels on call.

The designated ports must, as far as possible, allow the controls provided for by the provisions of international conventions relating to the control of vessels by the port State.

Foreign fishing vessels are only authorized to access port services and to carry out landing or transhipment operations in the ports thus designated.

The list of said ports is communicated by appropriate means to the international or regional organizations concerned.