Vessels pluck bait from local waters as tuna study nears start |04 May 2005

The two ships, the Aita Fraxku and Kermantxo, arrived in Victoria last week for the five-year project, which is being implemented by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) with the support of the Commission de l’Ocean Indien (COI). The project aims to tag more than 80,000 tuna.

Artisanal and industrial fishers are expected to eventually recapture some of these tagged fish, and the information they yield will help scientists evaluate the status of tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean and improve the certainty of information available for management decisions, said the IOTC.

According to the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), the use of the pole and line vessels is vital to the study so that the tunas that are caught and tagged are released in good condition.

However, this method will require the use of bait-fish to attract the tuna, and so the boats will be catching the bait and practising fishing techniques in local waters from time to time during the more than two years of field work. 

“We will be targeting small sardines and sprats, and other small fishes but not big mackerel and the other species preferred by local fishers,” said Jean-Pierre Hallier, the chief coordinator for the project. “People may notice the vessels at night as we trial the use of bright lights to attract the fish.”

He added that local fishermen would be welcome to observe the bait-fish operations and would be welcomed aboard the vessels.

The two research vessels will be regular visitors to Seychelles during the project, but will not be fishing commercially at any stage, said the SFA.

The vessels will be crewed by professional fishermen and a team of international and regional tagging scientists, including young technicians from Seychelles.