Seychelles’ lobster fishing season will open for handiest two months in 2023 as a up to date survey presentations a discount in catch charge, the quantity being stuck, and the choice of juveniles.

In a up to date press convention of the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), it used to be defined that the lobster season will open on January 15 to March 14 subsequent yr, keeping up a two-month season for two consecutive years.

Lobster harvesting season in Seychelles, a gaggle of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, historically opens for 3 months each and every two years.

SFA’s head of the fisheries analysis division, Rodney Govinden, defined that the authority is taking a precautionary manner to keeping up a season that opens for two months in order that inventory may also be stored at a manageable degree.

He stated that via a survey performed on 20 websites in the west of Mahe in October, SFA noticed that there are considerations in regards to the choice of juvenile lobsters that had been stuck.

“In a previous survey, there was a balance where 50 percent were juvenile lobsters and 50 percent were adult-sized. During this survey, we saw that there was a reduction in the number of juveniles from 50 to 40 percent. When the season is opened consecutively, which is the case for the past three years, we have noticed that there is a reduction in the number of lobsters being caught as well as the catch rate,” stated Govinden.

Despite this remark, SFA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Fisheries, determined to open the 2023 season as the similar survey confirmed that there was a slight building up in the scale of the lobsters stuck. An building up of 25 % in the abundance of fishable-sized lobster used to be noticed in comparison to the former survey.