(Seychelles News Agency) - There are a dozen or so species of fish in the waters of Seychelles that are already overfished or eventually will be, the island nation said in its second report to the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI).

The report summarises key status information on Seychelles' fisheries sector to increase public understanding and appreciation of the sector. It also assesses the level of compliance against the 12 transparency requirements of the FiTI Standard.

Seychelles submitted its second report to FiTI on December 15, and last week the report compiler, Jude Bijoux, said that there are more FiTI standards to be implemented "so that Seychelles can become more transparent."

"This includes sectorial support where FiTI asks that the supports provided are presented on a per vessel basis. When we break it down by sector, we will be able to see which fishing sector is absorbing most of the subsidies offered. Such information will help the government make better decisions on how each sub-sectors are to be supported," Bijoux said.

The FiTI report recommends that more information be provided on different fisheries sectors that have benefited from subsidiaries, types of exports, fishing agreements, and beneficial ownership.

On the recommendations made in the FiTI report for the year 2019, Bijoux said that "there were a total of 34 recommendations, out of which three quarters of the recommendations that were due for the end of 2020, were implemented."

He said that the few that were not implemented were because of staffing and time constraints.

"Some information is not complete or not available because some information is not being collected or not being compiled. One of the recommendations was to gazette all the fees charged for licenses and services in fisheries this has not been done yet. SFA has however stated that this will be implemented before the end of next year," explained Bijoux.

In the foreword of the report, the FiTI National Lead of Seychelles, Philippe Michaud, said that the report has also enhanced Seychelles' credibility as a responsible fishing nation.

"The government needs the right information so that it can make the right decisions. It is important to know the state of fish stock, for example, how it is evolving, how much research has been done on the different stocks, how many fishing agreements have been signed. These agreements should be made public. It is also important to ensure that all this information can be compared," said Michaud.

He added that "there are a lot of information that need to be given to international organisations and this report facilitates this and helps SFA to be more up to date when it comes to this information."

Fishing is the second top contributor to the economy of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean.