Seychelles Sports Fishing Club (SSFC) and Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) have embarked on a conservation project to manage the sustainability of fish stocks in the Seychelles waters. Hunt, Deltel & Co. Ltd was the first to participate in the SSFC/SFA Juvenile Demersal Programme, which is a landmark conservation and scientific programme involving 4 most at risk species based on a review conducted by SFA.
Demersal fish are those that live near the seabed, as opposed to pelagic fish which are usually found swimming mid-water. The programme which started January 1, 2017, advocates the tag and release of juvenile demersal at risk species critical to the Seychelles.
Fish are not considered mature until they can reproduce; it takes an Emperor red snapper about nine years reach a size of about 62cm before it starts reproducing.A total of 6,800 tags are scheduled to be deployed over a 5 year period. In addition, release rulers were developed that allow fishermen to identify whether a fish is in its juvenile stage. The programme has displayed early impressive results with 2 recaptures of previously tagged and released Emperor red snapper (Bourzwa).
SSFC organises major fishing competitions in Seychelles, however they are implementing a tag and release format to some of their tournaments in line with their conservational efforts. Supporting such tournaments assists SSFC to showcase Seychelles as one of the world’s top sports fishing locations.
*** FIRST BOURZWA TAGGED IN THE SSFC/SFA JUVENILE DEMERSALPROGRAM***
As you can see from the pictures, it was a little one measuring in at 10'' forklength. Thank you to angler Amie Valiente and skipper ChristopheHouareau for letting the little ones go with a tag. That is tag #53 not to far from home and we hope to see him back soon!