Ministry looks at measures to address deficit in yellowfin tuna stock |12 June 2018

The Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture is currently working on certain crosscutting measures to address the Indian Ocean Tuna (IOT) factory's deficit in its yellowfin tuna stock.

The principal secretary for Fisheries, Jude Talma, announced that his ministry is working on several short-term and medium to long-term plans to mitigate the issue.

This comes after IOT's chief executive, Nichol Elizabeth, last week revealed that the company is currently faced with a reduced supply of yellowfin tuna. The species is mostly used in IOT's most successful product, Petit Navire.

In an interview with the Seychelles NATION, Mr Elizabeth claimed that almost 300 employees working on the yellowfin tuna production line might be made redundant by July this year because of the stock shortage.

In order to tackle this crisis, PS Talma said that the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) is this week allocating 10% of its 30% yellowfin tuna buffer to the Seychelles-flagged purse seiners that have been compliant to reporting their yellow fin tuna catch, as a short-term measure.

It is to be noted that because of the 17/01 interim Resolution adopted by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) in 2017, contracting parties are to reduce their yellowfin catch by 15% from the 2015 baseline.

“This meant that Seychelles has an allocated quota of 33,000 tonnes which is 15% less than the 39,000 tonnes of yellowfin caught in 2015. For this reason, SFA allocated 25,000 tonnes to the 13 Seychelles-flagged purse seiners,” further clarified special advisor for fisheries, Roy Clarisse.

PS Talma added that the 30% buffer mechanism was adopted by the SFA to ensure that the Seychelles purse-seiners fish responsibly and to comply to the reporting mechanism. The buffer allocation will be made applicable only to the purse-seiners that have complied with SFA's reporting mechanism. It should be noted that false reporting of catch is a very serious offence with minimum fine of 1.2M SCR under the fisheries act.

As a medium to long-term measure, PS Talma said that the ministry will revise the fishing agreements and licences to ensure that a significant percentage of catches -- especially yellowfin tuna --  lands in Port Victoria. This will in turn guarantee IOT with a consistent supply of yellowfin. It is unacceptable to see 80% of tuna are transshipped in Port Victoria (including yellowfin) to other destinations and on the other hand IOT have to import same to process in Seychelles.

"There are new companies who have expressed their interest to fish in our seas and their new agreements will definitely include conditions that will oblige them to land certain percentage of their yellowfin catch at IOT for processing."

This percentage remains yet to be determined as IOT will firstly have to communicate their yellowfin needs to the ministry.

"As for the 13 purse-seiners flying the Seychelles flag, they have to be reminded that they have an economic obligation to the country and they will be our primary targets in this endeavour," but legal advice is being sought before we proceed.

However, it will be difficult to impose this measure on the European Union vessels fishing in Seychelles waters until their present agreement expires in early 2020. "We hope to establish similar conditions during our negotiations with the EU for the subsequent agreement," PS Talma said.

Speaking about IOT's challenges, PS Talma acknowledged that the relevant authorities should have foreseen the impact of the 17/01 Resolution on IOT's stock.

PS Talma nevertheless said that the deficiency in yellowfin tuna is not the only factor behind IOT's difficulties, IOT has historically been importing yellowfin tuna in the past during shortage at a specific time of the year.

"There are other mitigating factors such as the cut in the cost of operations which is completely normal for a company to do, and the yellowfin crisis certainly did not help the situation.”

The government of Seychelles currently holds 40% share in the IOT factory and a reduction in operations is likely to affect its dividend.