In parallel to the 27th session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), which was held in Mauritius last week, the Indian Ocean Federation of Artisanal Fishers (FPAOI) and the South West Indian Ocean Tuna Forum (SWIOTUNA) organized a conference to shed light on the challenges small-scale tuna fishers face in the region.
In their outcome statement, they insist on the importance of transparency “for effective oversight, accountability and public dialogue,” and highlight that the basic information of the fisheries sector, including catch data is “too often incomplete, outdated, unverified, or not readily accessible, affecting the capacity of governments to manage their marine fisheries efficiently.”
They insist that transparency is similarly needed for trust and for fishing nations to “demonstrate to commercial partners their capacity for sustainable fisheries management” and to give “donors greater confidence in their seafood sourcing, trade and investment decisions.”
Transparency is a concern also being addressed in the region through the FITi, and it should be noted that the Seychelles is a candidate country of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative since April 2020 and that Madagascar has recently become candidate (December 2022).
A fairer access to tuna for small-scale fisheries?
FPAOI and SWIOTUNA remind that tuna stocks are depleted and warn they will continue depleting if IOTC contracting parties do not apply corrective Conservation Management Measures (CMM). In particular, they ask that fleets stop catching juveniles to allow for stocks to rebuild.
For them, tuna fisheries are “falling short of their potential contributions to socio-economic development” and denounce the “unequal access to fisheries.” Since 2017, CFFA and CAOPA (of which FPAOI is a member), have advocated for allocation of access based on transparent environmental and social criteria, that respects the rights of developing coastal States and small-scale fishing communities to participate in and benefit from tuna fisheries.
More than 50 fishers from small-scale fishing organisations of Mauritius, Kenya, Seychelles, Madagascar, Comoros, and Reunion actively participated in this parallel conference.
Banner photo: Courtesy of FPAOI.
The European Parliament is set to give its consent at the end of May to the new Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and Mauritius. This article outlines the challenges that Mauritian artisanal fisheries face and highlights the priorities for sectoral support in the future SFPA protocol to support this sector.