Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) has announced two-thirds of its purse-seine fleet has reached the annual yellowfin tuna quota allocated by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).
SFA chief fishing officer Vincent Lucas told Seychellois media "eight out of 13 vessels have already been stopped as of mid-November" and that the remaining five vessels will also be idled once they hit their allocated quota.
Seychelles has been allocated 33,211 metric tons for 2020, spread equally among the 13 vessels bearing the Seychellois flag, according to SFA.
"Trends during the past two years show that if operators manage their quota properly by not fishing too hard during the first semester of the year and taking longer stoppages in port or scheduling routine service during the year, the quota can, in the majority of cases, be used up to November,” Lucas told Seychelles News Agency. “Some of the smaller vessels less than 2,500 gross tonnage are able to manage their quota more sustainably even up to late December.”
Under IOTC’s Resolution 19/01, the organization’s members agreed on yellowfin catch limits that would make the rebuilding of the Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna stock in the IOTC area feasible.
The resolution reduced overall catch by 20 percent, although some members insisted on a 7 percent reduction based on yellowfin catch levels from 2014 or 2015 for the case of the Seychelles.
However, Lucas says IOTC’s “interim rebuilding plan as per existing conservation and management measures for yellowfin tuna was not achieving its goal of 20 percent reduction in catches.”
He called on foreign fishing companies operating within the IOTC area to suspend fishing once their vessels reach the allocated quota.
In 2017, Seychelles is among six countries that caught the most Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna, alongside Spain, Iran, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and France.
An assessment of the 2017 Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna catches shows a 3 percent increase from the 2014-2015 levels.
“Not only did the IOTC fail to enforce the 20 percent reduction in catch recommended by its own scientific committee, it also failed to enforce even the meager 7 percent reduction agreed by its members,” according to a previous analysis of yellowfin tuna catches in IOTC area of competence. “Instead it allowed the annual yellowfin catch to increase yet again.”
Small Island Developing States Contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties such as Seychelles contributed less than 4 percent of the total yellowfin catch of the Indian Ocean in 2017 and are likely to reduce their purse-seine catch by 7.5 percent of the 2018 levels during the 2019 and 2020 period.
Photo courtesy of Seychelles Fishing Authority
