Regional conference on the Programme Regionale de Surveillance des Pêches |28 July 2017

Minister reaffirms Seychelles’ commitment to fighting illegal fishing

Seychelles is committed to fighting illegal fishing in the region and options are being considered as to what sustainable measures may be taken to reinstate the sea patrols which the country had to call off at some point.

The newly appointed Seychelles Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Pamela Charlette said this in her interventions during the recent regional conference on the Programme Regionale de Surveillance des Pêches (PRSP). This is a regional fisheries Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS).

The conference, held from July 18-21 in Madagascar, was organised by the Indian Ocean Commission’s (IOC) SmartFish project.

As the PRSP approached its 10 years of existence, an external evaluation of the PRPS was commissioned by the IOC to evaluate all components of the system. This evaluation highlighted excellent results of the mechanism but also proposed a series of recommendations to consolidate the achievements and highlighted the need to renew the commitments of the States to consolidate and perpetuate the mechanism.

A second ministerial conference was held and its main objectives were to present to the ministers the findings of this evaluation, seek reaffirmation of the political commitment of the participating countries to continue with the programme, outline policies and measures for future commitments, present the results of the activities and the progress made by PRSP since the first conference, discuss the current PRSP configuration, define a strategy for country-level interventions and activities, discuss modalities of cooperation with other organisations / projects in the Eastern and Southern Africa –Indian Ocean region.

Minister Charlette highlighted some pertinent points in regards to the issue of IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing in the Indian Ocean region, remarking that in view of the vast ocean space and the transnational nature of IUU fishing, it would be impossible for any country to fight this scourge alone. The minister thus called for the continued collaboration of the member States.

She urged the members that had not yet ratified the FAO Port State measures to do so, so that as a region, the member States would have the necessary legal instruments to take action but also be able to work more effectively.

In view of the success of the PRSP which is financed primarily by donor assistance under an ongoing programme, and wishing to see this surveillance and control activities continue, the minister urged the delegates to explore all means to find sustainable means of financing to allow that the programme does not die out with the end of the programme.

Minister Charlette also pointed out that there are a few initiatives in the region with similar objectives and regrouping more or less the same member States. She thus called for more streamlining and synergy between these efforts to optimise resource use but also avoid confusion which could provide the fertile ground for the fostering of illegal activities.

The Seychelles Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries took the opportunity to also reaffirm Seychelles’ commitment to fighting illegal fishing in the region and reassured the conference that options are being considered as to what sustainable measures may be taken to reinstate the sea patrols which the country had to call off at some point.

The conference prescribed some recommendations in five areas of focus, namely;

- Policy, legal and institutional framework;

- Improvement of human and technical capacity at national and regional levels;

- Strategic Intelligence and exchange of information;

- Regional and international cooperation in joint operations;

- Mobilisation of sustainable funding for the PRSP.

The conference was attended by the Vice-President of the Comoros who has the portfolio for fisheries, and the ministers responsible for fisheries of Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. The other participating States were France/Reunion, Kenya, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Minister Charlette was accompanied at this conference, which was preceded by a senior officials meeting, by the principal secretary for fisheries, the Commanding Officer of the Seychelles Air Force, the head of the MCS Unit of SFA, an assistant State Counsel from the AG’s Office and other technical staff from SFA.

The second PRSP ministerial conference ended with the signing of a Declaration signed by the ministers and the other designated representatives of their respective countries.

The PRSP was created following a decision at the Summit of Heads of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) member States in 2005 in Madagascar to fight against the Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the IOC region.

The objective of the PRSP mechanism is to respond to the regional fisheries surveillance strategy recommended by the IOC member States on strengthening cooperation between operational structures and data exchanges for the organisation of joint regional fisheries monitoring patrols.

The PRSP strengthens national surveillance activities by pooling, coordinating and optimising the monitoring and control capabilities of IOC member States rather than replacing them. The PRSP is also based on the use of new technologies and the sharing of data and information.

The first conference of IOC ministers responsible for fisheries took place on January 23-24, 2007 in Seychelles and brought together the five ministers for fisheries of the IOC member States to consider and discuss the problems encountered and measures to be taken to combat IUU fishing in the South West Indian Ocean.

The delegates adopted a resolution on strategic and policy issues related to combating IUU fishing.