The Mauritius government on Thursday ratified the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (SIOFA). Mauritius is the fourth state to enter the agreement, joining the Cook Islands, Seychelles and European Union.
The creation of a regional fisheries management body for the Southern Indian Ocean has been the primary objective of the Southern Indian Ocean Deepsea Fisheries Association (SIODFA) since its formation in 2006.
SIODFA said the agreement should remove any uncertainty and delay over introducing fisheries management arrangements and provide a formal means of executing various fisheries management and conservation measures.
The association and its member states, which all fishing in the Southern Indian Ocean, said the action will satisfy a United Nations General Assembly requirement that high-seas areas come under management of regional fisheries management bodies.
SIODFA vessels are already engaged in a voluntary program of collecting biological data of species, primarily orange roughy and alfonsino, and also data on bycatch of coldwater corals and deepwater sharks. Several of the association’s vessels are also participating in acoustic stock-assessment surveys as a part of their fishing operations.
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