How One Company Is Turning Tuna Bycatch Into A Money-Maker

Home to one of the world’s busiest tuna ports, an Indian Ocean tuna hub, a company in the Seychelles has a plan to significantly boost its revenues from tuna fishing, finding a way to ensure that bycatch from foreign purse seiners fishing in the local EEZ is put to good use.

James Lesperance of Amirante Fisheries is making sure that bycatch from the tuna canning industry does not go to waste, producing a variety of different processed fish products, both for local consumption and exportation.

Port Victoria, the main port of the capital of the Seychelles, is one of the most bustling tuna ports in the world, with an average of 200,000 tons of fish being landed and transshipped there every year.

A significant percentage of tuna caught by foreign seiners in the country’s EEZ is directed at the island nation’s only tuna canning factory, Indian Ocean Tuna Ltd. As one of the largest canneries in the world, it employs 2,300 people and produces up to 1.5 million cans of tuna per day for major European brands such as John West and Petit Navire.

According to the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) the majority of bycatch from French and Spanish seiners operating in the Seychelles was being wasted, stating that the raw material usually consisted of undersized skipjack, bonito, dorado, marlin, kingfish, silky sharks, wahoo and rainbow runners. These species, it said, account for about five percent of the vessels’ catch.

The SFA says that this represents between 25 and 40 tons of fish from any purse seiner returning to Port Victoria with a full load.

Earlier this year, significant concern emerged over what were described as an “unacceptably high limit” on the use of FADs agreed by the IOTC, allowing 550 FADs per vessels. FADs are commonly linked to significant rates of bycatch of purse seiners targeting skipjack tuna. The measure, however, was welcomed by the EU tuna fleet fishing in the region.

Amirante Fisheries, based just three kilometers south of the Seychelles capital of Victoria has been the first company to focus efforts on to tuna fishing bycatch production, in a bid to maximize yields. Currently, fisheries are estimated to generate USD 370 million in income for the Seychelles.

The Seychelles News Agency states that Lesperance is among a group of entrepreneurs in the nation that has been allocated fish processing units for fish value addition on reclaimed land south of the capital city. The facility consists of three processing factories, costing almost USD 2.5 million, and financed under the Seychelles-EU Fisheries Sectorial Development Program.

Amirante Fisheries is already processing and exporting various types of bycatch fish products to Sri Lanka, Indian, South Africa, Ghana and Benin. The raw material is purchased from tuna seiners for less than a dollar per KG depending on type and quality.

“These are still early days,” states Lesperance. “We are still at 40 percent of our target and still establishing our markets.”