Ras Nouadhibou (Arabic: رأس نواذيبو‎) is a 60-kilometre (37 mi) peninsula or headland divided between Mauritania and Western Sahara on the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is internationally known as Cabo Blanco in Spanish or Cap Blanc in French (both meaning “White Headland“).

In the 14th and 15th centuries, fishing activities carried out from the nearby Canary Islands, by Spanish fishermen, inspired Spain to develop an interest in the desert coast of what is today called Western Sahara.^{[citation needed]}

Cabo Blanco, in the Atlantic Ocean, is the only place in the world where Mediterranean monk seals form a true colony.^{[citation needed]} In 1997, two-thirds of the colony died off, but there has been gradual recovery since.