Tristan : New Fishing Season Gets Underway at Tristan
Submitted by Tristan Times (Sarah Glass) 29.07.2009 (Current Article)

The first official fishing day for the 2009/10 season, with catches being landed into Tristan’s new factory, got underway on the 28th July.

Photo (c) James Glass (Tristan Times) -: One of the fishing boats being loaded into the harbour at sunrise

New Fishing Season gets underway

The first official fishing day for the 2009/10 season, with catches being landed into Tristan’s new factory, got underway on the 28th July.   It was a beautiful day, flat calm and sunshine.  The boats did reasonable well landing 4,587kgs between them, and this is just for an average of nine hours, as at Tristan only daylight fishing is done, and no fishing gear is left in the water overnight. The top boat was Gary Repetto with partner Cliff Swain who landed 772kgs for the day.

The local boats are licensed on a yearly basis by the Tristan Fisheries Department, after being certified as being sea worthy by the board of inspectors under The Fishing Boats Safety Regulations By-law.  There are nine local boats in the fishing fleet, each 7.5m metres in length and weighing approximately 2800kgs.  They go out a distance from land of about 4 miles, although they fish all around the island, which is approximately 30 miles.    

At the last Island Council meeting before the Administrator David Morley departed on leave (19th July), the Island Council had approved the following Total Allowable Catches (TAC’s),

Tristan                       185 tonnes                             

Nightingale                   72  tonnes                              

Inaccessible                110 tonnes                        

Gough                           75 tonnes                        

                                   ---------------                                                    

Total                             442 metric tonnes            

The vessel M.V. Edinburgh will catch the TAC at the outer islands of Nightingale, Inaccessible and Gough whereas the islanders will catch the Tristan TAC. Before fishing commence at the outer islands an independent lobster survey will be done by the Fisheries Department, this is done at the beginning and end of every season.

This was first implemented in 2006, as part of the Lobster Project.  Funding was provided by the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme (OTEP), which provided the Fisheries Department with much needed equipment, scientific support and training.  The concession holders Ovenstones gave vessel support and has agree to continue after the project has ended.  Since 1997 the Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) has continued to improve due to excellent co-operation on management measures between the concession holders and the Tristan da Cunha Government’s Fisheries Department.

Photo: One of the fishing boats being loaded into the harbour at sunrise