SFA gears up for extensive survey on spiny lobster population   |20 September 2023

Ms Gabriel giving an overview of the survey methodology approach

The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) research department will be conducting an extensive fishery independent survey to evaluate the spiny lobster population and overall health of the stock on the Mahé plateau.

The aim of the fishery-independent stock assessment is to generate data on the abundance and distribution of spiny lobster throughout the waters of the granitic and coralline islands of the Mahé plateau, including the impact of the fishery on the stock for sustainable exploitation and management. The survey will take place over a period of 40 days, divided into four legs of ten days. It will start on October 6, 2023 and end on November 30, 2023 on designated sites around Mahé, Silhouette, North Island, Praslin, La Digue and Bird and Denis islands among others.

It has been over 30 years since a survey of such magnitude was held to collect data on the spiny lobster population. With the current lobster fishing regulations in place, only a Participatory Lobster Monitoring Programme (PLMP), introduced in 2005 with the help of local fishers to cover some indicative sites only, is conducted annually by SFA to regulate the annual fishing of the four species of lobsters done through an open and close season.

For this survey SFA has come up with a new methodology and design. Yesterday morning scientists from the authority met with the lobster fishers across the country to present the methodology and to discuss the implementation of the upcoming fishery-independent stock assessment. The half-day workshop was held at the Seychelles Trading Company (STC) conference room.

It was the senior fisheries scientist Kettyna Gabriel who gave an overview of the survey methodology approach and explained the aim and objective of the survey.

She noted that after compiling results from the assessment, these will be shared with the fishers for their inputs before any decision will be taken to maintain or to review the current measures in place for sustainable exploitation and management of the stock.

“There are several reasons why the survey will be conducted and one reason is that the last extensive survey, on a larger scale, was conducted more than thirty years ago in 1991. So there is a need to have an extensive survey that we are going to do now, to provide a snapshot of the stock on the Mahé plateau in terms of the population change, size and sex composition. The fishery-independent survey are very useful tools to see these changes in the population,” Mrs Gabriel said.

She noted that the scientific data collected will help in drafting harvest strategy among other decisions to sustain fishing of the specie.

She added that SFA will be looking to conduct fishery-independent stock assessment of spiny lobster on the outer islands.

The survey will also include the participation of the fishers alongside the scientists. It will be conducted by snorkellers and divers at a depth of 0-5 metres and 0-15 metres respectively in designated areas of 10 metres in width and 200 metres in length. Apart from gathering data, the exercise will include tagging some lobsters for monitoring purposes.

In an interview with the press, both Andre Pool, a lobster fisher from Petit Barbarons and Mark Grandcourt, a lobster fisher from Grand Anse Praslin, said they welcomed the idea for the extensive fishery-independent stock assessment as information on the spiny lobster stock was at times not very clear.

“It’s a good idea, it’s a new way of conducting the research and I hope it will work,” said Mr Pool, who noted that something should be done in the meantime to ensure that the current lobster fishing regulation is respected by all, especially with regard to illegal fishing by poachers.

Even though they were informed and contacted to attend the workshop, not many lobster fishers turned up for the consultative meeting. Mrs Gabriel later explained that given the good weather yesterday the majority of them went out to resume their normal fishing, outside the closure of the lobster fishing season, following bad weather for the past few days which prevented them from doing so.

Text & photos by Patrick Joubert