Lobster fishing: Seychelles' season to open only for 2 months in 2023

Seychelles' lobster fishing season will open for only two months in 2023 as a recent survey shows a reduction in catch rate, the amount being caught, and the number of juveniles. In a recent press conference of the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), it was outlined that the lobster season will open on January 15 to March 14 next year, maintaining a two-month season for two consecutive years. Lobster harvesting season in Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, traditionally opens for three months every two years. SFA's head of the fisheries research department, Rodney Govinden, explained that the authority is taking a precautionary approach to maintaining a season that opens for two months so that stock can be kept at a manageable level. He said that through a survey carried out on 20 sites in the west of Mahe in October, SFA saw that there are concerns about the number of juvenile lobsters that were caught. "In a previous survey, there was a balance where ...