Employment Study and Capacity Needs Assessment for the Fisheries Sector in Seychelles

The Seychelles fisheries sector has grown substantially since the 1980’s, driven primarily by the development of the Indian Ocean purse seine tuna fishery that uses Port Victoria as the regional hub for landings and transshipment. Important fisheries in Seychelles currently include: the industrial purse seine tuna fishery that lands to the canning factory, or transships, in Port Victoria for canned tuna markets in Europe; the artisanal line, trap and net fisheries supplying fresh finfish for mainly domestic markets; the semi-industrial longline fishery producing fresh tuna and swordfish for domestic and export markets; the sea cucumber fishery supplying processed product to Asian markets, and small invertebrate fisheries for mainly local markets.

There are many opportunities in expanding the sector, especially in post-harvesting activities and services, whereby more diversified, value-adding companies can be created. Furthermore, with the planned development of the aquaculture sector, increasing prospects are being created for highly skilled labour markets.

The main objectives of the consultancy where to:

• Identify the level of employment and wages earned in the fisheries and fisheries related sector.

• Determine the relative importance based on individual international standard industrial classification of all economic activities (ISIC) and including relative contribution to public finances, accounting for losses due to foreign labour employment, of the fisheries and fishery-related sectors compared to other sectors.

• To determine the human capacity needs of the industry so as to better understand the obstacles that inhibit its agents from realising their development goals.

• Devise a formal statistical approach for deriving employment-related information systematically, which could serve as basis to monitor changes over time and potential consequences of changes in national or international fisheries policy.