Imragen Dolphin-Assisted Fishing

The Imragen are a small ethnic group of West African fishermen who have lived along this coast for generations. They are best known for one extraordinary practice: when the seasonal mullet shoals arrive, the men wade into the surf and beat the surface of the water with wooden staves, calling in pods of bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins then drive the mullet toward the beach and into the fishermen's hand-cast nets, taking the panicked outliers for themselves.

The fishing takes place mainly in autumn, between October and December, and is not a daily spectacle. Visits are best arranged through tour operators in Nouakchott or the Banc d'Arguin park authority. There is no organised viewing — you are watching a working community at work.

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The Imragen technique was first documented by a French ethnographer in the 1940s, but the fishermen say their ancestors have worked with the dolphins for centuries. It is now one of only two places in the world — the other being Laguna, Brazil — where wild dolphins and human fishermen cooperate routinely. UNESCO has flagged the practice as endangered as the mullet runs become unreliable.

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