( 3 minutes read)
· In a recent meeting between the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) and local semi industrial boat owners, skippers and first officers, a number of issues were discussed including the contentious fishing licenses
· According to the license conditions recently announced by the SFA, boat owners have to comply with a number of conditions, such as what species can be caught, documentations that need to be kept in the vessels and notifications before leaving and coming back to port
· Representatives of .the Seychelles Fishermen and Boat Owners Association (SFBOA), pointed out that the regulations came out suddenly without consultations
In a recent meeting between the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) and local semi industrial boat owners, skippers and first officers, a number of issues were discussed including the contentious fishing licenses.
According to the license conditions recently announced by the SFA, boat owners have to comply with a number of conditions, such as what species can be caught, documentation that needs to be kept in the vessels and notifications before leaving and coming back to port. The fishing boats also have to install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) onboard to help authorities to track whether the vessels are entering into demarcated zones of exclusions.
According to authorities most of these conditions are being practiced even now. What the authority had done was to place those conditions in a proper framework to be followed. However, there are some contentious issues such as the exclusion zones to avoid large ships fishing in zones exclusively earmarked for small-scale fishermen. The industrial fishing vessels will no longer be allowed to operate in the exclusive zones for the small time fishermen.
Representatives of the Seychelles Fishermen and Boat Owners Association (SFBOA), pointed out that the regulations came out suddenly without consultations. They insist that such regulations should be imposed only after consultations. SFA representatives suggested that a small committee to fine tune this condition can be formed to make sure within which zones one can fish. The committee is likely to be formed shortly. Fisheries are the second top economic contributor of Seychelles GDP after tourism.
Russia’s Aeroflot will offer three direct flights linking Moscow to Seychelles starting May 1, according to the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB). With this, Aeroflot will connect Seychelles to Russia on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Aeroflot returned to the Island Nation after a gap ofg long 17-year.
