Seychelles at 21st session of IOTC meeting in Indonesia |24 May 2017

The Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture Michael Bestrong is heading Seychelles’ delegation at the 21st session of the IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission) meeting taking place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

In view of the serious implications of some of the motions proposed for discussions and by the fact that Seychelles intends to make a strong stance on the concerns it has with respect to last year’s Resolution 16/01, the Seychelles delegation is for the first time being led by a minister.

The delegation this year is also much larger than previous ones so that more informed stances may be taken at the discussion table to ensure that Seychelles’ interest is not compromised because of limited access to information and expertise at the time of discussions.

The other members of the Seychelles delegation come from the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, the Seychelles Fishing Authority (chairman, CEO and technical staff) as well as private operators, the Fishermen & Boat Owners Association (FBOA), the French and Spanish purse seiner representatives and the Taiwanese longline operators.

There are 16 motions proposed for this year’s commission and four of these are being tabled by Seychelles. The various proposals centre around the following issues:

• Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the IOTC area of competence;

• Transhipment at sea by large scale vessels;

• Conservation of various species both targeted species such as kawakawa, longtail tuna and Spanish mackerel and the non-targeted species such as the mobula and manta rays, billfish and sharks;

• Rebuilding of the yellowfin tuna stock banning discards of targeted and non-targeted species;

• Establishment of Working Parties on the Socio-Economic Impact of Fisheries in the IOTC area of competence and on Implementation of Conservation and Management Measures Prohibiting the use of Driftnets;

• Allocation of fishing opportunities;

• Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) procedures and management plans

In addition to Seychelles, the motions are being proposed by a diversity of countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Indonesia, France, European Union, Maldives, Mauritius and South Africa.