Sea cucumber season opens with a ban on white teat fish   |07 October 2022

PS Clarisse (centre) leading the press conference (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

• Replaced by Golden Sandfish, never-before-exploited species,

The sea cucumber season is opening next week with a complete ban on white teat fish (Kokosye blan), which will not be harvested for a three-year period, due to a significant depletion in its stock, according to the Seychelles Fishing Authority.

It will be replaced by a new species never before exploited, namely Golden Sandfish (kokonm).

The other two commercially-viable species – Flower teat fish (Pentard) and the Prickly redfish (Sanpye) – will still be exploited but the amount has been reviewed.

This was announced at a press conference yesterday morning chaired by the principal secretary for Fisheries, Roy Clarisse, and SFA officials at the authority’s headquarters in Espace Building.

PS Clarisse said the measures for the 2022/2023 season, which starts on October 15 and ends on June 14, have been taken following the findings of an independent stock assessment survey carried out by an Australian scientist, Tim Skewes, in November 2021 and March 2022, with the participation of SFA personnel and sea cucumber divers.

The results of the study were presented to stakeholders at a meeting in early September, where they were informed about the state of the three commercially-exploited species. They were told that the white teat fish (Kokosye blan), was heavily depleted, ‘Pentard’ Flower teatfish was over-exploited, whereas the population of the Prickly redfish (Sanpye) had increased by 50 percent.

The initial recommendations at the meeting had been to cease fishing White teatfish and to monitor the species in 3 years’ time, to reduce the quota for ‘Pentard’ by an additional 10% and urgently implement targeted stock assessment, as well as carry out an additional stock modelling on Prickly redfish.

A second stakeholder’s consultation led by Minister for Fisheries, Jean-François Ferrari, took place on September 22, and it saw the participation of the two main associations directly involved with sea cucumber harvesting, namely SCHA (Sea Cucumber Harvesting Association) and AMSSI (Association of Members of Seychelles Sea Cucumber Industry).

“We wanted to discuss the findings with them and agree on the measures that would be implemented for the new season 2022/2023,” said Mr Clarisse.

In its review, SFA has reduced the quota for Flower teatfish (Pentard) by 5 percent meaning fishers will be able to harvest 9,619 of that species compared to 11,250 pieces last season.

As for Prickly redfish (Sanpye), which was under-exploited according to the survey, the quota will go up by 20 percent from 1500 pieces per boat to 1800.

As for the Golden Sandfish (kokonm), the head of department for monitoring, control and surveillance, Johnny Louys, said because it is being harvested for the first time, each boat will be allowed 4000 pieces as a precautionary measure since SFA does not have much data on the species.

“This will be followed by a mid-year review to assess the stock and see whether we should increase or reduce the quota,” said Mr Louys.

According to SFA, its data on the number of Golden Sandfish collected to date, stands at 1000 pieces.

The head of department for Fisheries Research, Rodney Govinden, said the main reason divers gave for not targeting the species, was that it was difficult to harvest.

“From what they’ve told us, you have to harvest them at specific times during the months, such as three days before or after full moon or wait for new moon, which makes it difficult to target the species. It should be noted that the commercial value of Golden Sandfish is way higher than for other species,” he said.

The stakeholders’ consultation meeting also agreed on the modality to manage the quota in regard to the four fishing areas.

“The management of quota fall under four management units, namely Mahé Plateau, Amirantes banks which includes Desroches, Coetivy and Ile Platte. They can harvest outside of these areas but they will have to seek permission from SFA and the agreement is that if they fish outside these areas, they will not be able to harvest sea cucumbers in areas where the quota is applicable. And for those fishing outside the four management units, they will still need to harvest only the species mentioned,” explained Mr Louys.

Other than reviewing the harvesting, SFA has also announced that it was maintaining the 25 licenses issued to sea cucumber fishers. It had not received any new request for the 2022/2023 season, meaning only twenty-five boats will be allowed to harvest sea cucumbers, each with a maximum of four licensed divers.

According to SFA, the industry directly supports about 185 jobs generating an income impact of approximately R29.6 million. In 2019 the industry generated a value added impact of R43.5 million, with the fishing component and processing/exporting components contributing R31.3 million and R12.3 million respectively.

Patsy Canaya