2022
The fisheries sector, together with tourism, form the foundation of Seychelles’ blue economy agenda. From industrial fishing for highly migratory species, such as tuna, to artisanal and subsistence fishing for reef fish, seafood caught in Seychelles’ marine ecosystems provides livelihood, contributes to food security, and brings foreign exchange income to the country. Given the country’s expansive, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the development of Port Victoria and the different fisheries, the sector’s share in the gross domestic product has grown substantially in the last four decades while, at the same time, retaining its significant social and cultural importance to Seychellois.
For Seychellois, fishing has traditionally been regarded as a right leading to open-access fisheries with no control over the number of participants and new entrants into the sector. This traditional view on open-access fishing precludes management tools and interventions for conserving marine resources. However, as signs of overexploitation of some fisheries species become more evident, more fishers and the public are becoming more aware of the need for stricter limits on fisheries and more robust fishery management.
The state of the fisheries sector has prompted the government to develop the 2019 Seychelles Fisheries Sector Policy and Strategy to serve as a comprehensive framework for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development. The policy advocates for ecosystem-based fisheries management, maximizing economic benefits and ensuring ecological and socio-economic sustainability.
Achieving the goals of the policy requires implementing specific decision frameworks for fisheries management, also known as harvest strategies, using agreed-upon monitoring, stock assessment, reference targets and limits, and harvest control rules. Incorporating harvest strategies into fisheries management is considered best practice and forms a core metric of third-party certification organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). To provide the 2019 Seychelles Fisheries Sector Policy and Strategy and the Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan with their harvest strategies, SWIOFish3, in 2019, commissioned the current project to prepare the Harvest Strategy Policy guidelines.
The guidance document aims to provide practical assistance to underpin higher-level policy objectives with individual fisheries-specific management action plans, considering the unique biological characteristics of each type of fishery and their associated socio-economic objectives. In addition to this document, the project also facilitated a two-day training workshop in late March 2022 to aid in implementing the Harvest Strategy Policy.
The guidelines are divided into the following main parts:
Harvest Strategy Policy Principles
This section explores the fundamental elements of a harvest strategy and considers how risks can be managed. It consists of three key components: a data collection system for evaluating management performance, a transparent decision-making process with harvest control rules, and a set of management tools to regulate fishing activities.
Selection of Fishery Management Units
This section guides how individual fisheries, or groups of fisheries, can be aligned into common fisheries management units (FMUs). These units can vary from single-vessel operations to large, multi-gear fisheries, each with its management plan reflecting agreed objectives. The selection of FMUs considers factors like gear types, data collection opportunities, stakeholder demand, fishing pressure trends, value, ease of management, and marine spatial planning priorities.
Developing Harvest Strategies
This section provides wide-ranging guidance on setting operational objectives and performance indicators, developing a decision-making process, agreeing on data collection protocols, stock assessment approaches and harvest control rules, re-building overfished stocks, and dealing with impacts of long-term environmental issues such as climate change.
Preparing Fishery Management Plans
This section provides a template and examines how fisheries managers can embed harvest strategy and its implementation processes into a formal fishery management plan (FMP). These plans provide a clear and transparent understanding of the roles and responsibilities of fishery participants and stakeholders and formalize pre-agreed management processes that adapt to changes in the stock and its fishery.
Performance Evaluation and Review
This section provides guidance on fisheries management strategy evaluation to simulate monitoring, assessment, and harvest control rules and to evaluate trade-offs via performance metrics. Regular review of harvest strategies and fishery management plans is crucial to ensure they remain relevant and effective, with periodic routine and more rigorous management strategy evaluations being conducted.
Through this document, the project aims to help managers develop fisheries management plans that not only bring maximum economic benefit but also ensure that the fisheries sector remains sustainable and resilient to environmental changes.