Lobster fishing season 2019/2020 now open |21 December 2019
The lobster fishing season 2019/2020 is now open until March 10, 2020, the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (MFA) and the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) have announced.
This announcement came following the 2019 Participatory Lobster Monitoring Programme (PLMP) conducted during the month of October 2019. The results of this fishery independent survey show an increase in the relative abundance and biomass of all lobsters caught, indicating that the two-year closure has allowed the stock to recover to a level whereby the fishery can be re-open.
The spiny lobster fishery has traditionally been managed as a seasonal closure and limited access (license-limited) fishery. This is because fishers primarily exploit the shallow water and coastal stocks, where abundance is limited, thus causing rapid localise depletion with high fishing pressure. Over the past, there have been several significant declines of these coastal stocks when too many licenses were allocated, or when the fishery has remained opened for more than three or four consecutive seasons. The stock status is determined through the assessments of several stock indicators, such as the index of abundance determined through Catch Per Unit of Effort (CPUE) during period when the fishery is open and during fishery independent surveys.
Following significant decline in stock indicators, the lobster fishing season has remained closed for two consecutive seasons (2017-2018 and 2018- 2019) to allow the stock to recover. To assess the effectiveness of the closure, a fishery independent survey was undertaken at 20 indicator sites around Mahé, and based on the stock indicators, recommendations were made on whether or not to open the fishing season. The PLMP which has been in implementation since 2005, adopts an Ecosystem Approach which saw the participation of known lobster fishers working alongside SFA’s technicians and scientists.
During the 2019 PLMP, a total of 114.8kg of lobsters were caught, compared to only 77.4kg caught during the 2018 PLMP. This represents a significant increase of 48%. The increase in catch was evident for all three commonly caught species with the long-legged spiny lobster, the pronghorn spiny lobster and the painted spiny lobster, showing an increase of 48%, 49% and 37% respectively. As for abundance, it was observed that during the 2019 PLMP, there was an increase for both measures of CPUE, that is a 13% increase in the average CPUE in kg/menhour and 8% increase in number of individuals/menhour, as compared to the two previous years.
As for biological data, length-based indicator for pronghorn spiny lobster, the average sizes of females and males which saw an improvement in 2018, further increased by 0.3cm and males 0.8cm respectively in 2019. Similarly, the long-legged spiny lobster also saw an increase in average size of both males and females of 0.2cm and 0.4cm respectively. These results indicate that the two-year closure has allowed the stock to recover to a level whereby the fishery can be re-open.
The fishery will remain open for a period of 3 months and the number of licenses will be capped at 16 (10 licenses allocated for Mahé residents, four (4) for Praslin and two (2) for La Digue), issued on a first come first serve basis. So far, all 10 licenses for Mahé have been allocated and fishermen have started their fishing operations. Fishermen from Praslin and La Digue are yet to come forward.
The authority has this year issued additional license conditions to the existing one. These include a limit on the number of divers (four divers per license holder) and for those using traps, a maximum of 6 traps is permitted. The compliance bond of R5000 has been maintained as a precautionary measure to ensure that fishers comply with their obligations of providing the authority with the required information as per the conditions of their license.
So far the two main constraints encountered is that fishers are harvesting individuals that are below the legal minimum landing size of 7.5cm carapace length and the harvesting of females in berried conditions (bearing eggs). It is to be noted that each fishermen have been issued with two lobster gauges that will allow them to easily determine whether a lobster is above or below the minimum size. Lobsters below the minimum size and berried female are to be released back into the sea.
The authority has launched its monitoring, control and surveillance plan to ensure that fishermen abide by the conditions of their license and to combat the illegal poaching of lobster which is believed to be of high prevalence.
The Fisheries Regulations, 1987 (as amended) prohibits the catching, killing of lobster within the Seychelles waters without a valid fishing license and carry a maximum penalty of R20,000. Furthermore, the failure to abide by the license conditions may result in the revocation of the license.
The general public and sale outlets are informed that they should only purchase local lobsters from licensed fishers and the later should provide them with a receipt which should be kept at all times and produced upon request from SFA authorised officers.
The list of licensed fishers for the 2019/2020 lobster fishing season can be accessed on the website of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture.
Source : SFA
