Bio non-entangling Fads used by Pevasa for its fleet |17 February 2024

Seychelles Nation

During his last visit to Seychelles, the chief executive of the Pevasa Group, Borja Soroa raised the point on the main focal area in optimising on bio-Fish Aggregating Devices which are fully non-entangling in the meeting with Seychelles Fishing Authority new chief executive Jan Robinson to show the developments made in this area 

In order for the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA)  to fully understand what is being done since 2022, the Pevasa Group invited the local authority management team to visit the assembly area where the imported materials, container-loads, which are custom-bonded and manufactured before issuance to the individual vessels, trip by trip in accordance to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) resolution.

 On February 7, 2024, SFA chief executive Jan Robinson and fisheries management and technical manager Vincent Lucas visited the Pevasa Group and they were welcomed by the company’s country manager Nichol Elizabeth and the leader of the manufacturing process on site, Christopher Houareau.

The aim was to show the SFA team the end-to-end biodegradable types of Fish Aggregating Devices (Fads), to understand the different types of Fads being manufactured under the different categories set up by IOTC resolutions, including those that are fully 100% biodegradable.

They were shown the Fad materials used by Pevasa Group vessels and they are fully biodegradable and non-entangling, i.e. the ropes that go underneath are of different sizes and colours, the cloth that go on the main frame to create the shade, the wooden structure in round and square shapes so they can float, and more importantly the shredded, dried and treated special tree branches from Europe.

These Fad designs achieve several objectives: non-entanglement, reduced number of items used, fully degradable, lower depth, easier to handle and retrieve 

It was stressed that each purse seine vessel, three flying the Seychelles flag and one flying the Spanish flag, from the mother company (Pevasa) and locally based company (Beach Fishing Ltd), are fully optimising these types of Fads being assembled locally at the Ile du Port warehouse site.These activities taking place locally enhance the value-added activities on land, create jobs and generate an improvement in the knowledge and skills of the Seychellois team.

The SFA asked technical questions on the affordability, longevity, strength of those Fads and also the catch ratio as opposed to non-bio-Fads. Interesting points of views were exchanged and the Pevasa Group has promised to share knowledge gained with the SFA and MFBE in order to lead the use of 100% biodegradable Fads in the Indian Ocean in the short term.

“We strongly believe in taking the lead for Seychelles as this is a critical subject matter in good fisheries management as being pushed at IOTC level and strictly speaking, as a leading country with of the biggest regional purse seiner fleet. Having a clear and ambitious fishing device compliance target makes Seychelles a strong CPC for this agenda if we want to fast-track on the drifting-Fad commitment,” said Mr Elizabeth.

Another point raised was the lack of a supply/support vessel to really help in the deployment and retrieval of those good drifting Fads. This is currently the weakness in perfecting the positioning in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Seychelles, other CPCs and in international waters and allow the purse seining vessels to not waste time and fuel on drifting Fad fishing.

“We are currently testing the biodegradability of the materials with an accredited external body and truthfully speaking, the lack of a supply vessel is a major difficulty for the purpose to deeply evaluate materials behaviours at high seas and the different seasonality. Sometimes we have difficulties to get the proper feedback, which is true. With the support vessel we can technically solve this gap properly,” stated the CEO of Pevasa Group, Borja Soroa.

Another visit will be organised in the coming weeks with the Seychelles Maritime Academy to help the students understand what is going on in the fishing business and in this interesting industry.

Contributed