Monitoring the effectiveness of new shark protection laws in Seychelles
Over the past 12 years, John has compiled an elasmobranch catch database with more than 32,000 sharks and wedgefish (from 25 species) and over 3,000 rays (from 11 species) in Seychelles. The government now seeks to protect 10 threatened elasmobranch species caught in the artisanal fishery. These are Seychelles’ first species-based elasmobranch fishery measures, and it’s vital their implementation is optimal. John is gathering catch data and comparing it with the catch database from before the law change, assessing the legislation’s impact on catch, recommending ways to optimise it and building national capacity for its monitoring and enforcement.
John Nevill
Although I was born and educated in the UK, I am now a naturalised Seychellois. I have always been fascinated by nature and particularly the conservation and management of tropical ecosystems. For the more than 30 years that I have lived in Seychelles, I have been working in biodiversity conservation and management and related strategic planning. I started off working on endemic bird species and island ecosystem restoration, then served for six years as the director of conservation in the Department of Environment with portfolio responsibility for national biodiversity conservation and management. A little over 20 years ago...
Assessing and optimising the impact of new protected species legislation on Seychelles’ artisanal elasmobranch catch
To understand and improve the efficacy of new legislation that protects various elasmobranch species in Seychelles, and build capacity and awareness to optimise future elasmobranch fishery monitoring and management.
The Seychelles Government is moving to legally protect various elasmobranch species. These are the first species-based elasmobranch fishery measures to be instituted in Seychelles and it is essential that their implementation be optimised. This project will gather catch data and compare it with the catch database from before the change in the law, assess the legislation’s impact on catch, recommend ways to optimise it and build national capacity and awareness for its monitoring and enforcement.
The Seychelles National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan identifies overfishing as the primary threat to marine biodiversity. The National Plan of Action for the conservation and management of sharks recognises fishing as the primary threat to elasmobranchs in Seychelles and identifies the lack of ‘information as to the species-specific nature of the shark catch’ as a ‘critical impediment’ to effective shark stock management. Over the past 12 years I have compiled an elasmobranch catch database populated with more than 32,000 sharks and wedgefish (from 25 species) and more than 3,000 rays (from 11 species). The new legislation seeks to protect 10 threatened elasmobranch species that are caught in the artisanal fishery. Of these, five appear on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, three as Endangered and two as Vulnerable.
This project has four principal elements. Firstly, it will assess the effectiveness of the new elasmobranch legislation by monitoring the catch and comparing it with the existing database; investigate whether the legislation results in greater effort being directed towards other elasmobranch species; and present its findings to the authorities and make recommendations for enhanced implementation. Secondly, it will utilise its findings to inform a targeted public education campaign that will include extensive social media coverage, articles in the national press, elasmobranch posters and display banners, and public presentations. At the same time, it will produce an elasmobranch ID guide for public information and to support its third element, which is to build capacity for identifying shark species and monitoring catch by training fishery technicians and supporting three BSc Seychellois students and an MSc student. The fourth element is to determine, through mitochondrial DNA analysis, whether the females in the Seychelles’ populations of scalloped and great hammerhead sharks are philopatric. This would be a key component of assessing potential conservation measures, including better protection of known nursery habitats.
The aim of this project is to understand and improve the efficacy of elasmobranch protection, conservation and sustainable use in Seychelles. This will be achieved by:
- Ascertaining the impact of new protected species legislation on the artisanal fishery elasmobranch catch and making proposals on how to optimise this;
- Investigating whether hammerhead populations exhibit philopatry;
- Building national capacity to identify elasmobranch species and monitor their fishery catch;
- Raising public and stakeholder awareness of the new protected status of species, as well as their conservation status and ecological importance and the need for their protection.