Ship graveyard in Nouadhibou

In the city of Nouadhibou, you will find a ship graveyard. This ship graveyard consists of hundreds of ships full of rust floating in the water, while some of them are on the beach as well.
Nouadhibou is the second largest city in Mauritania, which is in western North Africa. This is the country’s commercial center.
However, why are all these ships just abandoned and left to die? Apparently the Mauritanian harbor officers were taking bribes which was allowing companies to abandon their ships in the harbor and all around the bay.
This started to become noticeable in the 1980s, after the nationalization of the Mauritanian fishing industry. Fishing ships that weren’t making much money or were using old vessels found it a very convenient place to set it and forget it.