Seychelles is paving the way for the introduction of measures to rebuild and maintain healthy fish stocks through the launch of the first Mahe Plateau Trap and Line Fishery Co-Management Plan.
The Mahe Plateau supports a demersal artisanal fishery that provides food and economic activity for Seychelles. The main species targeted by the handline fishery are snappers, groupers and emperors, whereas the trap fishery targets rabbitfish, parrotfish and emperors.
The plan, which seeks to take a co-management approach to fisheries management, proposes a set of measures to regulate fisheries for licensed fishers and recreational and sports fishers.
The assistant manager of fisheries management at the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), Elisa Socrate, said that commercial fishermen have expressed concerns for sevearl years that the fish they catch are becoming smaller and the quantity is decreasing.
“Sparked by this, SFA carried out several stock assessments through which it was discovered that certain areas of the Mahe Plateau were being overexploited and as such needed to be managed,” Socrate said.
To do this, the authoriteis will use an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, which needs the involvement of all partners and not only decision makers, said Socrate.
One study has shown that the average catch rate – catch-per-unit-effort – across nine target species groups has decreased by 65 percent since the early 1990s. The catch rate of snappers has reduced from around 36 kilos per day in 1994 to 16 kilos per day in 2016. Likewise, the jobfish catch rate has dropped from 45 kilos per day in 1990 to 24 kilos per day in 2016.
The reduction in catch rates and other evidence of overfishing has prompted the introduction of measures proposed in the Mahe Plateau Trap and Line Fishery Co-management Plan to improve the sustainability of the fish stocks. Such measures include a size limit for emperor red snapper and green jobfish, two of the most commercially important species.
The measures include a size limit for emperor red snapper and green jobfish, two of the most commercially important species.
Source: Seychelles News Agency