SFA introduces licensing framework for spanner crab fishery |18 December 2023

Ms Auguste

          License to be issued to ten fishers

The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) is introducing measures to strengthen the management of the spanner crab fishery on the Mahé plateau through the introduction of a licensing framework.

Speaking to Seychelles NATION, Karyss Auguste, assistant manager license and permit, said the aims of these measures are to ensure the sustainable development of the fishery as well as its monitoring and data collection.

The measures followed a request from fishermen involved in the fishery of the species, after concerns on the number and size of spanner crabs being caught on a regular basis.

This came out in a survey conducted by SFA in 2021 where it consulted fishermen on the management of this fishery.

According to Ms Auguste, some reported certain practices that were deemed irresponsible and not sustainable in the long-term, particularly the retention of small crabs and berried females.

“Most of the fishers felt the need for the authority to urgently introduce a license for the spanner crab fishery. This request was further reinforced during a stakeholders’ consultative workshop held on August 3, 2023,” Ms Auguste added.

SFA said presently many fishermen with an open fishing license are involved in fishing the crab, commonly known as ‘krab ziraf’ in Creole. The license will now be granted to 10 licensed fishers only from across the country. Those without a license will not be allowed to fish the species.

The licensed fishers will be allowed to operate with a maximum of 350 fishing traps per vessel, she added. To obtain a license, the fishers will have to make an application whereby they will be assessed on their equipment and experience, among others.The license will be valid from December 20, 2023 to October 31, 2024.

“We have put in place a licensing framework to be able to license the fishing of the species for monitoring purposes and collect enough data such as who are the fishermen involved in spanner crab fishery, and the number being caught so that we can draft a management plan to sustain the stock for the future,” said Ms Auguste.

She noted the introduction of a licensing framework would allow a controlled and sustainable development of this fishery and address the lack of data through the introduction of mandatory logbook and vessel monitoring system (VMS).

Furthermore, the introduction of a license fee would ensure that only serious fishermen engage in this fishery and through license conditions, irresponsible and unsustainable practices would be mitigated.

The Seychelles spanner crab fishery started as a commercial fishery in 1986, after it was established through stock prospection in 1984 that such a fishery could be viable. Prior to this the Seychelles’ spanner crabs resource was relatively unexploited. They are found throughout the Mahé Plateau with the highest densities in the southern and eastern regions. They are commonly found on sandy substrate interspersed with vegetation and coral at depths around 30-70 metres.

The fishing season generally spans nine months, from October through to June with three months break from the beginning of July to the end of September, mainly due to very unfavourable weather conditions.

Between 2011 and 2020, the average annual catch of spanner crabs was 30.5 tonnes with a peak of 90.2 tonnes in 2018, relatively modest compared to maximum sustainable yield of between 381.36 and 695.44 tonnes annually.

From early this year until June 2023, SFA conducted a stock prospection survey but it was still not enough to collect information and data on the species.

According to Ms Auguste, Seychelles spanner crab fishery can be categorised as a data-poor fishery as the scientific and catch and effort data that are currently available are inadequate for determining current stock status, in reference to the status determined during the 1984 stock prospection.

The last extensive stock assessment on the Mahé plateau was carried out in 1992, which indicated that the stock was underexploited and since then, the stock has remained unassessed, with very limited monitoring, apart from catch estimation, through the general Catch Assessment Survey.

Patrick Joubert