Tan-Tan – Octopus fishing activity for the 2025 winter season has recently resumed north of Sidi L’Ghazi in the maritime district of Tan-Tan, for all fishing units (coastal trawlers and traditional fishing boats).
The octopus fishing season, which began on January 1st and continues until March 31st, continues in the fishing zones north and south of Sidi L’Ghazi.
In this regard, the services of the Maritime Fisheries Delegation at the port of Tan-Tan, Maritime Fisheries Sector, registered on December 28th the coastal trawlers present at the port wishing to access the octopus fishery south of Sidi L’Ghazi.
The delegation also carried out technical inspections of the vessels, in particular checking fishing nets and the operation of the location and monitoring device, before granting access licenses to the octopus fishery.
As for fishing quotas during the winter season in the area north of Sidi L’Ghazi, the total quota of octopus catches allowed during the period from January 1st to March 31st, 2025, is set at 7,205 tons, of which about 900 tons are allocated to the maritime district of Tan-Tan.
The Maritime Fisheries Sector had announced in a ministerial decree of the Secretariat of State in charge of Maritime Fisheries, the resumption of octopus fishing activity north of Sidi L’Ghazi in the maritime district of Tan-Tan for the 2025 winter season.
The ministerial decree set the total catch of octopus allowed during the specified period, for the maritime district of Tan-Tan, at 900 tons.
In this regard, a committee was formed including among its members the Maritime Fisheries Delegate as chairman, and two members appointed by the Chamber of Maritime Fisheries, representing the traditional and coastal fishing sectors, in addition to a representative of the National Office of Fisheries and other professional representations if necessary.
Among the tasks entrusted to this committee is to rationalize fishing activity to avoid exhausting the octopus quota allocated to the maritime district of Tan-Tan, based on the distribution key based on the results of exploitation data and fishing effort in the maritime district.
The committee is also responsible for dividing the octopus quota monthly between the traditional and coastal fishing fleets at the points and port of the maritime district, and setting a ceiling for octopus catches per fishing trip for each type of fishing unit (traditional fishing boat or coastal trawler).
The committee ensures, in particular, not to exceed the monthly octopus quota, and not to exceed the octopus quota for each type of fishing unit (traditional fishing boat or coastal trawler).
In this regard, the Regional Delegate of the National Office of Maritime Fisheries in Tan-Tan, Dida Boughantar, confirmed that the fish market at the port of Tan-Tan is witnessing during this period the arrival of trawlers active south of Sidi L’Ghazi, where more than 100 trawlers were registered during the current winter season to access the fishery south of Sidi L’Ghazi as part of the rotation process, i.e., 50 vessels per fishing trip in this fishery.
He indicated in a statement to the Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) agency that since January 1st and until the 10th of the same month, more than 200 tons of octopus were marketed at the port of Tan-Tan with a turnover exceeding 20 million dirhams, adding that the selling prices of octopus were very encouraging as they ranged between 71 and 120 dirhams per kilogram, in addition to the marketing of other types of marine products, which indicates that there are positive indicators both for professionals working south of Sidi L’Ghazi and other vessels active north of Sidi L’Ghazi.
He highlighted, on the other hand, that the fish market at the port of Tan-Tan has engaged in the field of digitalization by generalizing the digitalization of the auction sale process "Dallala", which had a positive impact on the marketing of products as there was fluidity in marketing and the adoption of transparency and tracking of the marketing path within this market, which occupies an important place among fish markets in Morocco.
The coastal and traditional fishing fleet active at the port reached 629 units for 2024, namely 264 traditional fishing boats, and 368 coastal vessels, including 185 trawlers, 123 sardine vessels, and 60 longliners.
The port of Tan-Tan ranks third at the national level after Dakhla and Laayoune, in terms of quantities of fish landed.
This article Tan-Tan: Resumption of octopus fishing activity for the 2025 winter season appeared first on Map Ecology.
