Subregional review: Southwest Indian Ocean

Stephen Cunningham and Clotilde Bodiguel
IDDRA Ltd, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
July 2005

INTRODUCTION

The southwestern Indian Ocean region, bordered to the west by the African continent, lies approximately between 0° and 45°S and extends to 80°E. The region is situated in the intertropical convergence zone, characterized by heavy rain and high seawater and air temperatures. It is bounded at its southern end by a transition zone between the Atlantic Benguela current and the Indian Ocean Agulhas current, a warm water system flowing from the Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Benguela current is part of one of the strongest wind-driven cold-water coastal upwelling systems in the world, leading to far greater productivity off the southwestern coast of Africa than is associated with the warm Agulhas current off the southeastern coast.

Four continental countries, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and United Republic of Tanzania and five islands and archipelagos, the Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles comprise the southwestern Indian Ocean region.^[66] In this group, South African fisheries are atypical: taking advantage of the rich upwelling driven by the Benguela current, South African fisheries are turned principally towards the Atlantic and those that do exist in the southwestern Indian Ocean region are often an extension of the Atlantic coast fisheries into the intercurrent transition zone.

Marine landings of these nine countries (plus Mayotte and Réunion), shown in Table 1, represent a small percentage (over 10 percent) of total western Indian Ocean landings. Nevertheless, fishing is an important activity in this region, contributing to the crucial issues of food security and poverty alleviation. Some of the countries with the lowest gross income per capita are situated in this region, such as the Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania.^[67]

The contribution of fisheries to livelihood and economy differs from one country to the next. In Maldives, fishing was the largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) until tourism overtook it in the mid-1980s. Despite the relative decline (from 16 to 9 percent) in the contribution of fishing to GDP because of the boom in tourism, the landed value from the major fisheries has increased substantially (from US$24 million in 1989 to US$40 million in 2003).^[68] However, in most countries, the contribution of the fishing sector to the GDP is below its potentiality. In Mauritius, the fishing industry as a whole contributes only around one percent to GDP, but the sector remains important for trade, with a positive trade balance for fishery products of US$8.57 million in 2002, mainly due to the export of canned tuna.^[69] In 2002, over 30 percent of the value of the agricultural export of Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles was fish. In Maldives and Seychelles over 40 percent of all exports was fish. In Seychelles, the fisheries sector is the first source of foreign exchange (Seychelles Fishing Authorities, 2001).^[70] In Madagascar, the fishing sector is also an important source of foreign exchange for the national economy but accounts for only 3.5 percent of the GDP.^[71]

TABLE 1
Landings of marine fish in 1990, 2002 and 2003 in the southwestern Indian Ocean statistical area

Source: FAO, 2005b.
Note: Catch data include marine mammals, crocodiles, corals, pearls, sponges and aquatic plants.

In all countries, fish plays an important role in the daily diet. Fish forms over 20 percent of total animal protein in the Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles. As an extreme example, Seychelles is ranked fifth in the world in terms of per capita consumption of fish, with an annual intake of around 65 kg per person. In Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania, the situation is somewhat different because most fisheries are inland, in lakes such as Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika. Marine fish landings represent less than 5 percent of fish production in Kenya and between 10 and 20 percent in the United Republic of Tanzania.

There is a general trend towards the development of semi-industrial and industrial national fleets. However, the exploitation of stocks beyond the coastal zone by such fleets still remains, with the exception of South Africa, at a relatively low level even if certain of these fisheries are growing. Examples of such fisheries include the swordfish fishery off Mauritius and Seychelles, Mauritius’ offshore banks fishery and the deep shrimp fishery off Madagascar and Mozambique.

Marine landings are still predominantly produced by artisanal fisheries operating within the coastal zone, which covers a great diversity of coastal habitats such as sandy beaches, estuaries, coral reefs, lagoons, wetlands, bays, mangroves and seagrass beds. Pressure on the coastal zone has been increasing, certainly over the past 20 years, as a result of population increase (Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania), the development of international tourism (widespread) and the development of coastal aquaculture (Madagascar, Mozambique). Therefore, management of the coastal zone in the southwestern Indian Ocean is a major issue for economic development, food security and the protection of habitats and vulnerable species.

This article discusses the major trends in the development of marine fishery management policy and practices over the last ten years within the subregion.

REGIONAL POLICY FRAMEWORK

During the last decade, the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania have reformed or initiated programmes to reform their fisheries laws (Table 2). These reforms provided an opportunity to review the principles guiding the management of marine fisheries and its objectives. The general impression is that these principles, regardless of whether they were related to international agreements and objectives, were unequally and only partially integrated into the new laws.

TABLE 2
Year of introduction of current basic fisheries legislation in the southwestern Indian Ocean region

Source: FAOLex, 2005c.
* Not yet in force (Talla et al., 2004)

The Mozambique fisheries law of 1990 did not integrate sustainable management principles and objectives and the gaps have only been partially filled by the new fishery regulation (1996, revised in 2003). Other countries, for instance the Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, undertook programmes with the technical assistance of FAO^[72] to formulate operational fisheries development strategies and to reform their laws appropriately. For example, the Mauritius ten-year fisheries development plan (1998) emphasizes the sustainable use of existing resources and the Fisheries and Marine Resource Act (1998) integrates guiding principles such as the “conservation, protection of fisheries and marine resources, and the protection of the marine ecosystem”. More precise objectives and references to the guiding principles (such as responsible fisheries) are cited on the Ministry of Agro Industry & Fisheries Internet Web site. South Africa’s Marine Living Resource Act (1998), elaborated after the democratic election of 1994, integrates a number of principles internationally promoted such as sustainable development, the precautionary approach and ecosystem management (Box 1). However, since they focus mainly on the Atlantic Ocean, South African fisheries do not play a leading role in the subregion and are therefore not a typical example.

When management objectives or principles are not included in national Fisheries Laws, they can be extrapolated from other documents. Maldives’ fishery objectives, for example, are presented in the National Development Plan and in Vision 2020, which set the political programme for the nation.^[73] In addition, the Malagasy constitution stipulates the need for rational exploitation of fishing resources in order to conserve them for future generations, while objectives are set out in the fishery management master plan.

A fishery policy framework for the southwestern Indian Ocean currently cannot be not explicitly defined because there is no set of common objectives and principles clearly stated within the region. In particular, principles guiding management are heterogeneous, although there are some similarities in the objectives identified in different countries.

Management objectives in the subregion are generally not sector specific and reflect national priorities. The southwestern Indian Ocean subregion contains some of the poorest countries in the world, such as the Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania, where artisanal and traditional fisheries play an important role for food security and poverty alleviation. It is thus not surprising that management objectives are often development-orientated, for example poverty reduction, employment maximization and food security. For example, the Tanzanian National Fisheries Sector Policy and Strategy Statement identifies the following goals: poverty reduction, creation of employment opportunities, increased food security, increased economic growth and sound environmental practice.^[74] Similarly, the objectives for the industrial and semi-industrial fisheries in Seychelles are to enhance the contribution to nutrition, to maximize work opportunities and foreign exchange earnings, to ensure stable development of the industry and to conserve marine resource so as to ensure long-term viability (Seychelles, 2005).

Similar objectives appear in the Protocol on Fisheries signed in 2002 within the framework of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which includes five countries of the subregion: Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles,^[75] South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania. This Protocol aims to promote responsible and sustainable use of the living aquatic resources and aquatic ecosystems in order to:

• promote and enhance food security and human health;

• safeguard the livelihood of fishing communities;

• generate economic opportunities for nationals in the region;

• ensure that future generations benefit from these renewable resources; and

• alleviate poverty with the ultimate objective of its eradication.

Overall, fisheries play, and are expected to continue to play, an important role in the subregion in terms of protein supply and employment, as well as in terms of fiscal receipts and foreign exchange. Fishery management objectives reflect these multiple goals. Whilst the reforms undertaken in each country have improved the political framework for fishery management in the region, the objectives remain potentially contradictory and there appears to be a general lack of prioritization. The distinction between management principles and management objectives is often unclear. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature is that many of the objectives are macroeconomic in nature (e.g. food security, employment, livelihoods and poverty alleviation). It is clear that no single sector can achieve these goals single-handedly but there appears to have been little debate as to how best the fisheries sector can contribute to the achievement of such macroeconomic goals.

Analysis of the possible routes through which fisheries can contribute to national social and economic development goals is urgently needed so that informed decisions can be made on the role that the sector, and perhaps even individual fisheries, should play. Otherwise the risk is that fisheries management objectives remain little more than a wishlist of desirable goals, and countries will fail to fully benefit from the natural wealth available to them in the form of fish resources.

REGIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK

All the countries in the subregion have agencies responsible for the management or development of marine fisheries. These agencies are either specific fisheries ministries or identified departments within a larger organization responsible for agriculture, tourism, or infrastructure/transportation, for example (see Table 3). Consistent with the importance attached to fisheries for employment, development and food security in the region, the fisheries departments generally are not linked to an environment ministry; the exception being South Africa and Seychelles.

TABLE 3
Ministry responsible for Fisheries Department

¹ Note: in the Seychelles, the Seychelles Fishing Authority is the executive arm of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

It should be noted that institutional links between environment, tourism and fisheries have been developed in the region during the last decade through the line ministry (Seychelles, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania) or through the delegation of fisheries management responsibilities to natural parks (e.g. the marine parks of Bazaruto and Quirimbas in Mozambique, Kwazulu Natal park in South Africa and Mohéli Marine Reserve in the Comoros). This development is a recognition that the marine and coastal environment in this region provides a range of valuable services, including support for fisheries and for international tourism attracted both by living resources as well as habitat for classified endangered species such as turtle.

Environmental or related regulations have been introduced or reinforced in all countries since 1990. In South Africa, the Biodiversity Act (under development) includes the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which will impact on fisheries legislation. In Mozambique, regulations implemented after signing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) led to modifications in fishing gear (e.g. the use of turtle excluder devices). In Madagascar, work is currently underway on the legal framework for integrated coastal zone management. However, most of these new laws or regulations still impinge only marginally on fisheries legislation, even if their impact is generally increasing.

Formal coordination between environment and fisheries agencies is not common, although it is developing in Maldives, South Africa and recently in Seychelles and the United Republic of Tanzania. For example, in Maldives, a member of the Ministry of Environment sits on the ad hoc Fisheries Advisory Board in order to ensure that provisions for the conservation of biological diversity, protected areas and natural reserves in line with the 2002 Environmental Protection and Conservation Act are taken into account in fisheries regulations.^[76] Similarly, the Director of Fisheries in the United Republic of Tanzania is a member of the National Environmental Advisory Committee.

STATUS OF FISHERIES IN THE REGION

Marine fish resources in the southwestern Indian Ocean can be placed in two categories: tuna and non-tuna. The tuna species were not traditionally fished by the countries in the region, except for Maldives and smaller tuna for the Comoros. Non-tuna fishery resources are the main source of employment, subsistence and proteins for local populations of the region. For example, the Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles have populations that consume more than 20 kg per person per year (as high as 70 kg/caput in Seychelles and 160 kg/caput in Maldives). Fish forms over 20 percent of total animal protein in the Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and the United Republic of Tanzania. In Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania, national fish consumption figures are dominated by the contribution of inland fisheries, but the contribution of marine production to communities along the maritime coast is nonetheless significant.

Most artisanal and industrial marine fisheries are multispecies. Broadly speaking, the same types of Indo-Pacific marine resources are harvested in the different countries, such as fish,^[77] lobster, crab, shrimp, bivalves, octopus, sharks or reef species. Trevallies, mackerel, sharks, small pelagic fish, lobsters and shrimps are the main identified transboundary resources.^[78] However, the definition of stocks is unclear in the region, so the understanding of interdependence between fisheries remains limited. The state of most resources is also poorly documented and information is often outdated as most biological data seem to have been collected in the 1970s and early 1980s (Table 4). Only the state of a few stocks with significant economic importance is assessed nationally on a more regular basis, for example shrimps in Madagascar, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania. A catch assessment survey programme has been in place in the Seychelles since 1984, providing annual trends analyses for the artisanal fisheries.

TABLE 4
The major marine fisheries of the southwestern Indian Ocean (SWIO) region

Source of landings data: FAO, 2005b
Source of probable status: FAO, 2005a
Notes: catch data include marine mammals, crocodiles, corals, pearls, sponges and aquatic plants. nei = not elsewhere included; M = moderately exploited; F = fully exploited; O = overexploited

Production is unevenly documented, especially landings from the artisanal and traditional fisheries for which even the total number of fishers and landing points is often not known with any precision, particularly in remote areas. As a result, production is often grossly estimated by category of fisheries, gear or location by country, making it difficult to provide a quantifiably accurate synthesis. Nonetheless, the region’s fishing activities do have some significant subjective similarities.

Artisanal and traditional coastal fisheries^[79] using basic fishing gears (hooks, lines, harpoons, traps or nets) are predominant. They represent respectively 100 percent and 90 percent of the Comorian and Tanzanian landings, at least 75 percent of Mozambican landings^[80] and 73 percent of Malagasy landings. Once again, South Africa is an exception because the major part of its total landings is harvested by a semi-industrial midwater trawler fleet targeting horse mackerel and an industrial fleet targeting pilchard in both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Other exceptions include the Maldives, in which landings of tuna-like species dominate, and the Seychelles, where the traditional artisanal landings represent only 4.5 percent of all landings (SFA, 2003).

Artisanal and traditional fisheries are an important source of employment and the principal supplier of fish to local markets as illustrated by Madagascar where the 55 000 traditional fishers supply 95 percent of the fish for the local population.^[81] These fisheries occur in lagoons, bays and near-shore waters. One common feature is that they are generally considered to be fully- or overexploited, especially where they are found close to centres of population. Over the last ten years, the number of underexploited or stable fisheries in the coastal zone has tended to decline and such fisheries are now an exception.^[82] This change is due to the high density and low mobility of the artisanal and traditional fleets.

Fish aggregating devices (FADs) have been promoted in several countries of the region (the Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and the United Republic of Tanzania) as a means of diversifying production and reducing or redirecting effort. Success has been mixed.^[83] The alternative solution, adopted or planned in some countries, is to develop a more heavily motorized artisanal fleet and a semi-industrial fleet to exploit new grounds further out in the EEZ, focusing particularly on tuna and tuna-like resources.

Semi-industrial fisheries target mainly shrimp, groundfish and deep-sea fish but also breams and snappers on offshore banks in Mauritius and Seychelles. Madagascar and Mozambique have developed the largest semi-industrial and industrial fleets targeting shrimp. In these countries as well as in the United Republic of Tanzania, the shrimp fisheries subsector is also the most managed. Shrimp stocks are now fully-exploited and would benefit from a strengthening of regional cooperation for their assessment and management. It is considered that there are few offshore stocks that are underexploited from a biological point of view. Possibly the main exceptions to this are Madagascar and Mozambique.

Tuna, an important fisheries resource in the region, has been only marginally fished by national fleets, except in Maldives where tuna species have been fished in a unique manner for centuries. In Maldives, mechanization during the 1970s led to a rapid increase in tuna landings: from 30 000 tonnes in the 1980s to over 90 000 tonnes in the 1997 and a record of 138 751 tonnes in 2003.^[84] In other countries of the region, the tuna fishery is mainly pursued by foreign fleets (e.g. China, EU and Japan) on the basis of fishing agreements with the local countries or through joint-venture enterprises.

These agreements are significant sources of foreign exchange for some countries. However, faced with over- or full-exploitation of near-shore and coastal resources, most countries in the region plan to develop their own semi-industrial tuna fleets. For example, in Seychelles only small numbers of tuna were caught and landed before 1980. By the mid-1980s, 50 foreign purse seiners were licensed. In recent years, annual licence fees and the other income from fish processing, ship chandlering, and other ancillary support industries have made fishing the most important sector, surpassing tourism (SFA, 2003). Since 2000, a small national fleet of semi-industrial longliners targeting tuna and swordfish has developed, supported by economic incentives from the Seychelles Government and soft loans from the European Community. The country also plans to increase joint ventures with foreign companies in order to better access the industrial fishery. Other countries where such joint ventures are important include Mauritius and Mozambique.

The development of national fleets for tuna fishing is a potential increasing trend for the region. However, as established by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) recently, with the exception of skipjack tuna, most of the important stocks (yellowfin, bigeye and swordfish) are fished above their maximum sustainable yield (IOTC, 2003 and 2004). Thus any developments in the subsector have to be gradually and correctly managed to prevent further overexploitation and economic marginalization of existing fishing operations while affording coastal countries access to the resources.

The development of national fishing fleets for transboundary and highly migratory species requires consideration at the national level of the objective hierarchy and the appropriate exploitation methods (development of a national fleet versus fishing agreements, maximization of employment objectives versus foreign exchange) and a consolidation of regional cooperation, which remains underdeveloped in the region.

Another critical issue for the region, noted above, is the lack of primary data (e.g. landings, fishing effort and biological data) on which to base reliable stock assessments. Deficiencies in the registration and monitoring of landings, fishers, vessels and landing points vary by country but are widespread, generally because of a lack of human and financial capacity, together with inadequate structures and procedures. The isolated nature of some regions makes the problem worse.

At the regional level, IOTC collects and analyses data on tuna and tuna-like species for stock assessment. Currently, there is no regional body or agreement to assess the other resources although the Southwest Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (SWIOFC) should help to fill this gap once it is operational. SADC-initiated projects, co-financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (NORAD) and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ), to assess marine resources of the east side of the SADC area should also benefit the subregion. Since 1999, SADC and the FAO have also been collaborating to initiate a research project on the large marine ecosystem (LME) of the southwestern Indian Ocean. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is supporting an LME project, currently in the preparation stage, for the Agulhas Current and the neighbouring Somali Coastal Current LME. This project aims to assist in the conservation of coral reefs and to enhance their socio-economic value. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has established a database of fisheries methods, areas and gear as a tool for an ecosystem approach to coastal fisheries management.

REGIONAL MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY

Several factors have hindered the development of regional cooperation in the southwestern Indian Ocean. The following are examples.

• Artisanal fisheries in the lagoons and very near-shore areas dominate national production. The development of motorized artisanal and semi-industrial fleets covering a larger geographical area is a relatively recent trend.

• Even in cases where the same or similar species are fished, the concept of stock and transboundary fisheries is poorly documented in the subregion.

• EEZ boundaries and shared waters between the Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte and Seychelles remain an unresolved issue, which poses a problem for both the implementation of national policy and the definition of regional plans.

• Tuna species that are the main transboundary and migratory species of the subregion were not traditionally fished by the regional countries themselves. With the exception of Maldives, such fisheries are of very recent origin.

• The process of establishing the Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission was set back by high seas issues relating particularly to orange roughy fisheries mainly in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Indo-Pacific Tuna Development and Management Programme (IPTP) was one of the first attempts to organize cooperation between tuna fishing countries. This programme has been replaced by the IOTC. Apart from the development of fisheries regional bodies that are described below, other regional initiatives should be noted, such as the 2002 fishery protocol signed by SADC, even though this economic organization does not cover the entire subregion. Within SADC, activities related to the establishment of effective cooperation on monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) among the SADC coastal member states (Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania) have been undertaken as well as activities related to information collection, training, review and analysis of legal issues, economic planning analysis and co-management review.

Apart from these regional initiatives, countries in the region manage marine fisheries within their territorial waters at the national level. The extensive artisanal fisheries are managed to a lesser extent than the semi-industrial and industrial fisheries, which often have limited entry, quotas and/or other management conditions applied to them. Limited entry provisions and the control of fishing capacity within the artisanal and traditional sectors are rare, although in the islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues and Agalaga, a buy-back programme for the voluntary relinquishing of nets and net permits in return for financial compensation to permit holders and fishers has been in operation since 1996.^[85] This programme was combined with a further reduction in the number of nets allowed in the Fisheries Act of 1998. The buy-back programme will continue until such time as the number of nets matches that fixed in the new Act. In addition, the artisanal sea cucumber fishery in the Seychelles has been licensed since 2001, and, as a precautionary measure, a quota of 25 fishing licenses is applied to this fishery. Likewise, the Seychellois lobster fishery is also managed through time restrictions (open/close seasons) and quota on fishing licenses (SFA, 2003).

As shown in Table 5, classic management tools, such as gear restrictions, licences and limited entry, are used for industrial and semi-industrial fisheries. Typically, licence numbers have been frozen in fully- and overexploited fisheries, such as the shallow-water shrimp fisheries in Mozambique. Quotas are rarely used in the region even though at least one fishery in each country is under some kind of catch restriction.

Spatial restrictions, such as bans or closed areas, are also widely used in the subregion for industrial and artisanal fisheries to avoid gear conflict or to protect specific areas. Marine parks, reserves or marine protected areas have been created in all but two countries of the subregion and there are indications that the degradation of reef fisheries and ecosystems has been slowed along those stretches of coast where marine protected areas have been established, for example in Kenya, including Malindi, Watumu and Mombasa (McClanahan and Arthur, 2000).

Despite the efforts made by the countries over the past ten years, compliance with and enforcement of management regulations remains a major issue. Enforcement is undertaken either by agencies other than the fisheries management agency, generally the national coast guard, police or the navy, all of which have duties and priorities other than fisheries, or it is performed by the fishery management agency, which often lacks the physical and human capacity to fulfil the task. The level of compliance with national regulations is thus often low, particularly in artisanal fisheries. This is the case, for instance, in Mozambique where 75 percent of fisheries are theoretically managed, but where a very small part is effectively managed despite a noticeable improvement resulting from the political stabilization and the establishment of a distinct Fisheries Ministry.^[86] In industrial fisheries, almost all countries have introduced vessel monitoring systems (VMS) technology^[87] to assist in monitoring activity. The Comoros are also interested in adapting this technology to the artisanal fleet for monitoring and safety purposes.

TABLE 5
Management activity for the major artisanal and industrial fisheries of the region

Notes:

¹ Customary rules are applied in the Comoros that can vary from one island to the next or from one village to the next. The national legal framework is focused mainly on gear restrictions to prevent endangered species from being caught as bycatch. However, the Comoros has sought the technical assistance of FAO to renew the law on fisheries and aquaculture and has formulated an operational strategy for the management and development of its fisheries. The new legal framework for Comoros fisheries should be ratified in 2005.

² Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles have semi-industrial sectors. Limited entry and quotas exist in the Mauritius Banks fishery. Seychelles has vessel limits on swordfish longlining and quotas in its mothership management plan. Mozambique limits semi-industrial shrimp vessels.

COSTS AND REVENUES OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

The costs (and budgets) of fisheries management have increased within the subregion for three main reasons: the development of fishery management, conflict resolution within the coastal zone and high seas monitoring. For example, the cost of Mauritius fisheries management rose from Rs 37.14 million to Rs 96.345 million between the financial years 1993/1994 and 2002/2003, representing a real annual increase of approximately 3 percent.^[88] In the case of Mozambique, the increase was mainly the result of updating the fisheries law, including the management of new fisheries, trials with new management tools and the modification of institutional arrangements as shown in Table 6. Another example is the Maldives reef fishery where the resource base is limited and characterized by multiple users: as valuable non-extractive uses of the fishery resources have developed, so have conflicts between the tourism and fisheries sectors. Dealing with such conflict has required increased monitoring and the implementation of new regulations to manage the reef fisheries.

The Maldivian case also illustrates the third main source of increased cost. Maldivian tuna fishermen operate within 50 miles of the atolls and the Maldivian EEZ is therefore relatively underfished. Maldivian fishermen strongly believe that illegal fishing in the EEZ by foreign vessels affects tuna catchability and school formation in the near-shore areas. The fishers report illegal, or suspected illegal, activity to the Maldivian coast guard who have been responsive in dispatching their vessels to investigate such cases. As a result, the cost of monitoring has considerably increased as the number of vessel apprehended over the years has increased.^[89]

Despite this general increase in management costs, in no country of the region are the participants in the fisheries sector required to pay the full cost of management, research or enforcement for the sector and the concept of “user-pays” is unknown in the area. Governments receive revenues from marine fishing activities from two main sources: (i) fishing agreements and royalty payments for foreign industrial fishing and (ii) licence fees paid for vessels and fisher licences.

Royalty payments from tuna fisheries and fishing agreements constitute a non-negligible source of revenue for most countries in the subregion. Licence fee revenues from the national fleet are generally low and are unrelated to the real cost of fishery management. In Mauritius, licence fees from national and foreign fishing vessels together represent 87 percent of the fishery revenue, which represented approximately 26 percent of the running costs of management for the 2002/2003 year.^[90] Licence fee revenues are neither fully nor directly channelled back into fisheries management with the exception of South Africa where all taxes and other funds recovered from the fishing industry are allocated to the Marine Living Resource Fund giving greater autonomy to administer these funds for research and compliance.^[91] In Madagascar, about 20 percent of licence fee revenues are directly transferred to the Aquaculture and Fishing Resource Development Fund (FDHA).^[92] In the Comoros, the entire budget of the Fisheries Department is met from (a small part of) the EU fishing agreement.^[93] In the United Republic of Tanzania, provisions have been made within the New Fisheries Act to establish a Fisheries Development Fund that would meet a number of development and resource management obligations.

TABLE 6
Main changes affecting the cost of fisheries management in Mozambique since 1990

¹ National Fisheries Research Institute (IIP)
Source: SOWMCFM Country Review for Mozambique.

The lack of any “user-pays” principle, together with the absence of an explicit relation between the costs of required management and revenues, means that fisheries management agencies are constrained to adjust their management and supporting activities to the level of annual government appropriations.

IMPLEMENTATION OF GLOBAL FISHERIES MANDATES AND INITIATIVES

All countries in the subregion have signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the FAO Compliance Agreement has also been ratified by a large majority of the countries (Table 7). Fewer countries have signed the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. The latest, Kenya, ratified it in 2004 as it became a member of the IOTC.

TABLE 7
Ratification of UNCLOS, FAO Compliance Agreement and the UN Fish Stocks Agreement

As noted earlier, the fishery protocol in the framework of the SADC, which involved Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania, includes an obligation to make provision in legislation for UNCLOS, the Compliance Agreement and the Fish Stocks Agreement. This initiative may encourage some countries to ratify the agreements and other countries to make provisions in their legislation.

Individual country performance on implementing International Programmes of Action (IPOAs)^[94] is uneven. However, all countries have initiated actions on at least one IPOA and are in the process of developing National Plans of Action (NPOAs).

For example, in South Africa, high seas fishing permits have been introduced for flag-state vessels and this has helped control domestic effort. However, high seas activity by flag-of-convenience vessels remains difficult to control. Monitoring of the landings of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) vessels has dramatically improved in South Africa, as well as in other ports in countries signatories to the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organization (SEAFO) and the SADC Fisheries Protocol.

Seychelles produced an NPOA against IUU in 2004 that sets out state responsibilities such as control over nationals, sanctions on unauthorized fishing by national vessels outside of its EEZ, a review of practices relating to IUU fishing and Port State and Coastal State measures that it has established. Several measures against IUU fishing are in place in Mauritius and a formal NPOA against IUU is in preparation.

Mauritius and Seychelles are also in the process of developing an NPOA for sharks and a 10-year ban on coastal shark fishing is in place in seven atolls in Maldives. An NPOA on shark management has also been initiated in South Africa and is expected to be submitted in 2005.

As a member of both the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), South Africa complies with catch documentation schemes and has taken initiatives in all longline fisheries to introduce methods to mitigate seabird mortality. An NPOA on shark management has also been initiated and is expected to be submitted to FAO in 2005. Madagascar expects to present an NPOA against seabird mortality in 2005.

Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania are party to a regional plan of action (RPOA) for Lake Victoria, with elements that are applicable to marine fisheries. The United Republic of Tanzania has requested the assistance of FAO (Subregional Office in Harare) in the preparation of an NPOA in 2005 that would cover both its inland and marine fisheries.

It is noticeable that while control and enforcement is a major issue everywhere and most countries have small high seas fleets, the IPOA to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU is the plan for which most actions were initiated, leading to the subsequent increase in national management cost as shown above in the Maldives case. This is largely related to global and international initiatives and the financial support provided. It would benefit inshore and coastal fisheries resources if such support was also directed to the prevailing management and IUU issues found in many of the artisanal fisheries of the region.

REGIONAL FISHERY BODIES (RFBs)

As noted above, a number of factors have hindered the development of regional cooperation in the southwestern Indian Ocean. However, the degradation of coastal environment, the full exploitation or depletion of coastal fishing grounds widely experienced within the region and the full- or overexploitation of shrimp stocks and of the main tuna and tuna-like species have revealed the need for more regional cooperation both to conserve transboundary and highly migratory stocks and to ensure the sustainability of national fishing plans.

To date, there are two regional fishery bodies covering the southwestern Indian Ocean, both related to tuna and tuna-like fisheries: the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and the Western Indian Ocean Tuna Organization (WIOTO).

The IOTC is a management body created in 1994 (entry into force 1996) with the following mandate:

• to review, collect and disseminate statistical information;

• to encourage, recommend and coordinate research and development activities;

• to adopt conservation and management measures to ensure the conservation of the stocks covered; and

• to keep under review the economic and social aspects of the fisheries.

The WIOTO, created in 1992 (entry into force 1994), is an advisory body that aims for the following:

• to harmonize policies with respect to fisheries;

• to manage relations with distant water fishing nations;

• to ensure fisheries surveillance and enforcement;

• to develop fisheries; and

• to ensure reciprocal access to EEZs of other members.

The IOTC is a very active RFB whereas the last WIOTO meeting was held in Seychelles in 1995. Currently, a minority of the countries in the southwestern Indian Ocean subregion participate in these RFBs: Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and recently Kenya are members of the IOTC; while the Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles are members of the WIOTO. Some non- member countries also cooperate with the IOTC. Maldives, for instance, participates regularly in technical meetings. South Africa has an observer status in these RFBs: in keeping with the greater importance of its Atlantic-based fisheries, it is a full member of both the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the South East Atlantic Fisheries Organization (SEAFO).

Non-member countries have no legal mechanism to implement measures adopted by regional fisheries bodies, such as IOTC. However, the Commission has not so far adopted any measures pertaining to spatial, temporal, gear, size, catch or access restrictions.

Despite this lack of formal involvement in tuna RFBs, a movement towards the reinforcement of regional cooperation is noticeable with negotiations initiated in 1999 for the establishment of a new RFB, the Southwest Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (SWIOFC).

It is intended that the SWIOFC be a management body covering fishery resources under national jurisdiction and high sea species not covered by other RFBs. The preliminary discussions for the establishment of the SWIOFC involved a number of the subregional countries such as the Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and the United Republic of Tanzania. The regulation of fishing activity in non-tuna fisheries on the high seas adjacent to southwestern Indian Ocean countries is in the final processes of negotiation and the Fifth Intergovernmental Consultation on the establishment of a Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement will take place in Mombasa, Kenya, in April 2005, back-to-back with the First Session of the SWIOFC.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Fisheries exploitation and management in the southwestern Indian Ocean region are typical of the situation in many of the world’s fisheries.

• Fishery management reforms have improved the political framework for fishery management but some of the objectives are potentially contradictory and lack prioritization.

• Fishery information systems are generally inadequate so that management must operate in a data-poor environment. Data are often missing on even the most basic elements such as the number of fishers and where they land, what they land and in what quantities, and the amount of fishing effort they use (even expressed in simple terms such as the number of active vessels).

• Stock assessments are mostly perfunctory and focused largely on high-value export fisheries. Given this data-poor situation, it is difficult to make strong statements concerning stock status. However, the qualitative evidence suggests that fish resources are increasingly fully- or overexploited (biologically), especially in coastal waters.

• Fisheries policy remains, by and large, linked to the development concept that has been shown to lead to failure in many other countries. The key feature is one of progressive overexploitation, with the “solution” to overfishing in coastal waters being seen as the development of technically more powerful fishing fleets capable of fishing further offshore. Such development must also emphasize management of the coastal and inshore waters for any chance of long-term success and sustainability.

• Management systems seem generally to have little impact. Implementation of existing management systems and fisheries regulations seems generally poor. The main problem appears to be the difficulty in controlling fishing capacity, particularly in small-scale fisheries. This difficulty may be one factor explaining the policy approach referred to in the previous point.

• The objectives assigned to the fishery sector are generally macroeconomic in nature (employment, incomes, foreign exchange and so on), but little, if any, attention is given to the way in which the sector can best contribute to these goals, nor to the potential conflict between them. For instance, at present, many of the countries in the region seem to rely on foreign fleets fishing offshore to generate foreign exchange through licence fees, but at the same time wish to develop their own fleets to fish the same resources in the same areas.

• The regional and shared nature of many of the fish stocks is in contrast to the poorly developed institutions for regional management. Until recent years, there has been limited interest in regionally-based management, although this may be changing with the development of the SWIOFC.

• Some EEZ boundaries and shared waters remain unresolved - a problem for both the implementation of national policy and the definition of regional plans.

Progress has been made in the policy and legal frameworks for management. The issue now is to develop fishery management plans for well-defined (and manageable) fishery management units. A key feature of these plans must be recognition of the fundamentally economic basis of most fishing activities in the subregion and to use this as a building block for management. Other useful features would include:

• the introduction of adaptive management strategies, based on strengthened management structures with well-defined, prioritized objectives and secure funding;

• the consolidation of a scientific advisory function with responsibility for standardizing methodologies for stock assessment and bio-economic analysis; and

• better control over growth in fishing fleet capacity, with restrictions on subsidies that, elsewhere, have in the past resulted in increased fishing effort. Effective enforcement of fishery regulations, with strong support at the political level, is required.

As noted above, fisheries management in the subregion is increasingly linked with tourism or environmental management directly through the line ministry or through marine parks. In fact, the development of international tourism (in particular, eco-tourism), which is of great economic importance to the region, also represents a challenge to the marine fishery sector. Fisheries management will increasingly need to take into account this fundamental trend. The development of tourism may represent an opportunity for the marine fisheries sector (e.g. increased environmental protection and economic opportunities), but it may also be a threat (conflict, competition for space, greater demand for high quality reef fish, pollution, and so on). The development of sustainable tourism following good codes of practice and respecting traditional activities is likely to be crucial for the survival of coastal fisheries. The development of a legal framework that includes both activities will also be necessary.^[95]

The development of regional fishery bodies, especially the SWIOFC, is of great importance. Such bodies can play a number of important roles in the case of shared stocks but also in the case of national fisheries management. They can provide, for instance, a framework for sharing of information and resources (e.g. for research, given the limited nature of such resources), and may also be able to help individual countries develop management plans by providing information on current best practices. The SWIOFC may also have an important role to play in representing the interests of the fisheries sector in regional debates concerning, for instance, the development of sustainable tourism, integrated coastal management and marine protected areas.

States should ensure their active participation in regional initiatives such as the SWIOFC and several regional initiatives such as the SWIOFP, a regional MCS network, and the Somali-Agulhas LME. Greater harmonization of the definition and application of regulations and instruments, where appropriate, would be constructive development.

REFERENCES

Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Southwest Indian Ocean. 2000. Preliminary draft agreement for a regional fishery body. Appendix E: the Status of fishery resources in the SWIO region. Eighth Session, Zimbabwe. 24-27 January 2000. (unpublished)

FAO. 2005a. Country fisheries profile and Information on fisheries management for Kenya and Seychelles. Rome. Available at http://www.fao.org/fi/fcp/fcp.asp

FAO. 2005b. Fishstat Plus. Universal software for fishery statistical time series. Available at http://www.fao.org/fi/statist/statist.asp

FAO. 2005c. FAOLex. Available at http://faolex.fao.org/faolex

Gallène, J. 2002. Performances et contraintes actuelles des pêcheries artisanales, et perspectives d’un développement technologique responsable en Union des Comores. Rapport Technique du projet TCP/COI/2902. Rome, FAO. (unpublished)

IOTC. 2003. Report of the Eighth Session of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. Victoria, Seychelles, 7-12 December, 2003. Victoria, Seychelles. (available at http://www.iotc.org)

IOTC. 2004. Rapport de la sixième session du Groupe de travail de la CTOI sur les thons tropicaux. Victoria, Seychelles, 13-20 July 2004. Victoria, Seychelles. (available at http://www.iotc.org)

McClanahan, T.R. & Arthur, R. 2000. The effect of marine reserves and habitat on populations on East African coral reef fishes. Ecol. Appl., 11(2): 559-569.

Payet, R. 2005. Personal Communications with Roldolph Payet, Seychelles Fishing Authority, Seychelles.

Seychelles. 2005. For the Sustainable and Responsible Development of the Fishing Industry: the Fisheries Policy of Seychelles. Republic of Seychelles. (available at http://www.sfa.sc)

SFA. 2003. Seychelles Fishing Authority: Annual Report 2003. Mahe, Sychelles. (available at http://www.sfa.sc/)

Talla, P., De Young, C. & Gallène, J. 2004. Refonte du cadre juridique et définition d’une stratégie opérationnelle de gestion des pêcheries Union des Comores. Rapport Final et compendium des documents du projet TCP/COI/2902. Rome, FAO. (unpublished)

World Bank. 2004. World Development Indicators 2004. Washington, DC. Available at www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2004/