Digital Fishing Fleet Management in Seychelles

The Seychelles Government has chosen the technology of Spanish company Satlink to digitally monitor the catches of its fishing fleet, with the aim of strengthening and ensuring the long-term sustainability of its activity.

Satellite communications experts Satlink will provide the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) with one of the most advanced analysis software solutions on the market, in addition to equipping the fishing fleet’s purse seiners with its onboard Electronic Monitoring solution – Satlink SeaTube.

After a testing period that began in 2021, Seychelles is now strengthening its partnership with Satlink as a technology provider until 2026. The authorities will use the Satlink View Manager (SVM) software to analyze the data obtained on board the vessels and generate reports that may include information such as the composition of the catches, the destination of the bycatch, or the fishing zones, among others.

In a country where fishing is the main contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (between 20% and 30%), the objective of the project is to ensure sustainable activity and better management of the fishing fleet, both from the Government and the industry. This is a joint effort with the tuna fleet operating in the Indian Ocean, who advocates for demonstrating transparency and good practices of its crew.

Seeking to reduce the potential impact of unregulated activity, the Seychelles Fishing Authority will have the local support of Satlink, which has its own offices in the port of Mahé, located in Victoria, the capital of the African country, with a technical and commercial team, and from which it provides support to the entire Indian Ocean. Satlink has also trained SFA personnel, who will be responsible for covering the chain of custody of the information, from extraction on board the vessels to its subsequent review and analysis.

The reliability of Satlink’s Electronic Monitoring solution is backed by more than 290 onboard installations and the training of more than 100 observers and analysts in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. With this contract, Satlink is a trusted provider of technology solutions for better management of fishing resources and more sustainable activity for around thirty governments.

Among the latest contracts awarded to the Spanish company are those signed with the governments of Sweden, Malta, or Cyprus, among others. Last year Satlink became the first and only European company authorized by the US government to supply these systems to its fishing fleet.