SFA’s reef fish spawning research findings published |07 November 2013

The findings of a recent scientific research led by the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) on reef fish spawning aggregations in Seychelles, Kenya and Zanzibar have been published.

The Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) which has published the findings of the research in a book soon to be available electronically at the SFA also provided financial support for the research in Seychelles through a grant.

The SFA also received support from the GEF Small Grants Programme, the GoS/UNDP/GEF programme ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity Management into Production Sector Activities’, and the European Union sectoral policy support funds to Seychelles under the EU/Seychelles Fisheries Protocols of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement.


The foreword of the book is by Professor Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson of the University of Hong Kong and it highlights the key project findings described in the book.

“This book is one of the first. It is the first documentation of commercially important reef fishes that aggregate to spawn in the western Indian Ocean. It is the first to develop a framework for processing information in data – and manage poor situations where fisheries, important to local communities must, somehow, nonetheless be properly managed. It is the first to explore in details the outcomes of different management scenarios across very different species fished in very different ways within the same region,” Professor de Mitcheson said in excerpts of the foreword.

Dr Jude Bijoux of the SFA wrote several chapters in the book and obtained his PhD from the research for the project which he led.

Several technicians from the SFA were also trained in the use of acoustic telemetry by scientists from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) involved in the research, whereby the use of spawning sites by groupers and rabbitfish were tracked by inserting acoustic transmitters in the body cavities of the fish.
 
Many types of reef fish, including rabbitfish (Kordonnyen), groupers (Vyey), emperors (Kaptenn) and snappers (such as Vara vara), migrate seasonally and aggregate in large numbers at spawning sites for reproduction.

The distances fish migrate to spawning sites can be surprisingly high with even small rabbitfish travelling more than 10 kilometres. Aggregation sizes can also be spectacular, with some groupers forming aggregation of several thousand individuals. Such seasonal migration and aggregating behaviour obviously require careful monitoring and management if targeted by fishers.
 
The SFA research team partnered with other regional institutions on the project. These included Coastal Ocean Research and Development Indian Ocean (CORDIO), the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) of Zanzibar and Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI). The research efforts here also received the support of the Praslin Fishers Association, Nature Seychelles, Islands Conservation Society and the Islands Development Company, as well as technical support from the IRD.

As well as articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals of which five have resulted from the project to date, the WIOMSA also supports projects that aim to influence management and governance activities in the region.

In Seychelles, this has been through joint research activities on rabbitfish spawning aggregations with the Praslin Fishers Association and the adoption of the findings in a fisheries co-management plan for the island.

Groupers and rabbitfish are some of the types of fish concerned by the study