The spiny lobster fishery around the Mahe Plateau November - December 1993: presentation, results and analysis.

This report reviews the catch assessment survey, conducted by staff of the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), of the spiny lobster fishery on the Mahe Plateau during the 1993 fishing season. Following the recommendations made after the 1992 fishing season, the fishery was reopened in 1993 for two months, November and December. The monitoring programme set up in 1992 was continued to gather more information on the spiny lobster so as to improve the management of this resource around the Mahe Plateau. A total of 28 licenses were issued (compared to 38 in 1992); 16 on Mahe, 6 on Praslin and 6 on La Digue. Licensed fishing unit comprised an average of three men. Snorkelling was used by 24 fishing units as the only catching method, while 2 fishing units combined snorkelling with the use of traps. One fishing unit used scuba diving as the fishing method and declared no lobsters caught during the 3 fishing trips. One fishing unit was licensed in December and apparently didn't fish. Over the two months a total of 4.1 tonnes of spiny lobsters were estimated to have been landed compared to 4.9 tonnes in 1992, most landings were on Mahe (2.2 tonnes). A catch of 2.7 tonnes was landed in November and only 1.4 tonnes landed in December. Altogether 240 trips were undertaken equivalent to 665 man-trips for the season with 148 trips in November and 92 trips in December. Traps were used less in November (3% of trips) than in December (16% of trips). The catch per unit of effort (CPUE) for the month of November and December were: - 18.4 kg/trip (November) and 17.8 kg/trip (December) for snorkelling, - 2.2 kg/trip (November) and 5.4 kg/trip (December) for trap fishing. Three species were mainly landed: Panulirus penicillatus (Homard Grosse Tete), Panulirus longipes(Homard Rouge) and Panulirus versicolor(Homard Vert). The catch composition by fishing method was: a) Snorkelling: Homard Grosse Tete : 84.3% Homard Rouge : 15.5% Homard Vert : 0.2% b) Trap: Homard Grosse Tete : 30% Homard Rouge : 70% Only 2.4% of the total catch was captured by traps and 97.6% caught by snorkelling

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Jacques, R.M.
Format:	Report biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Victoria: Seychelles Fishing Authority 1994
Subjects:	Catches, Lobster fisheries,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/1834/1345
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