Has the European Parliament listened to the Seychelles artisanal fishers concerns?

During the next European Parliament plenary session, on November 12th, MEPs will be asked for their consent on the proposed Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the European Union and the Republic of Seychelles and its implementing protocol (2020-2026).

During these SFPA negotiations, the local artisanal fishing organisation Seychelles Fishermen and Boat Owners Association (SFBOA), highlighted its priorities. In its view, the EU-Seychelles SFPA should (i) contribute to reducing the pressure on tuna resources and on the environment, including by limiting the number of purse seiners, supply vessels, and FADs in the area covered by the IOTC; (ii) ensure transparency and more participation of the fisheries stakeholders and local communities, and (iii) use sectoral support funds primarily for the management of fisheries, and for the improvement of living and working conditions in the local fishing sector, which is key for food security, livelihoods and exports of premium products.

In CFFA’s view, the proposed EP resolution to be voted next Thursday indeed relays many of these concerns.

Keith Andre (third from the left), president of the Seychelles Fishermen and Boat Owner Association, presenting the priorities of artisanal fishing communities at an event organised at the European Parliament last November 2019. Photo: Joëlle Philippe/CFFA

Most importantly, it notes that the SFPA could potentially lead “to an increase in fishing capacity in the region, despite scientific recommendations [A/N: The IOTC Scientific Committee recommends reducing yellowfin tuna catches by 20%] to reduce the catch of the overfished yellowfin tuna and despite calls from the Seychelles fishers’ union to reduce fishing effort in the region.” The EP resolution urges the Commission, together with the Seychelles authorities, to take all necessary measures to stop the overfishing of yellowfin tuna by the EU fleet, including by “introducing catch limits for yellowfin tuna and stepping up the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing.”

The text also welcomes the introduction of measures to limit the number of support vessels and the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs), and welcomes the obligation to use biodegradable FADs, which must be recovered when they are no longer operational. However, “these measures are not sufficient to limit the negative impact of FADS on biodiversity and marine litter and that their use must be quickly and drastically cut back.”

The proposed resolution highlights that “the Seychelles fisheries sector, including its artisanal component, has not been sufficiently involved throughout the negotiations,” and calls for “the participation of and dialogue with local communities and fisheries stakeholders to be improved, as much as possible, by keeping them informed and through their systematic inclusion in the implementation of the SFPA, with a view to ensuring that the interests and the development of the Seychelles fisheries sector are not undermined by the EU-Seychelles SFPA.”

The increased transparency introduced in the SFPA is also welcomed in the resolution - the Seychelles Government has indeed agreed to publish information relating to any foreign fleets access agreement, in particular the number of fishing authorisations issued and the catches reported. However, the Commission is called on to go further in the proposed text, and to make publicly available the minutes and conclusions of the meetings of the Joint Committee.

This would meet the joint recommendations CFFA published last May 2020, together with WWF, BirdLife Europe & Central Asia, but also with CAOPA and FPAOI, the Federation of artisanal fishermen of the Indian Ocean, of which SFBOA is a member. In these recommendations, we ask for a transparency clause, which was first added in 2015 for the Mauritanian SFPA, to be embedded into all SFPA (see page 4, top paragraph).

The resolution also notes that the fee to be paid by ship-owners per tonne of tuna caught is increasing: from EUR 55 per ton some years ago, it will be EUR 85 per tonne for the six years of the new protocol. For CFFA, this is a positive development and, in accordance with our joint NGO recommendations, we would like to see a further increase of that fee, in order to reduce the use of tax payer money for the payment of EU tuna fleets access, so that the financial compensation is solely used for sectoral support.

It is interesting to see that issues related to fishing relations between EU and the Seychelles outside the SFPA are also mentioned. The proposed resolution generally makes the case for a stronger alignment between what is done in the SFPA and the IOTC resolutions and recommendations. This would meet the request from SFBOA, which called for applying the IOTC recommendation on supply vessels (2 supply vessels in support of not less than 5 purse seiners, all flying the same flag, as per IOTC res. 19/01).

The case of tuna purse seiners owned by EU citizens or companies and flagged in the Seychelles, is also highlighted in the proposed resolution. It is indeed key, in line with the spirit of the SMEFF regulation, to ensure these vessels do not use reflagging as a way to bypass stricter EU management rules and limits on EU fleets access.

Banner photo: Industrial fishing vessel in Mauritius. By Jo-Anne McArthur - Unsplash/@weanimalsmedia

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