VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) has awarded a R2 million grant to the Seychelles Fisheries Authority (SFA) for a sea cucumber stock enhancement feasibility project, under the eighth cycle of the Blue Grant Fund. The grant documents were signed by SeyCCAT chief executive Marie-May Jeremie and SFA chief executive Dr Jan Robinson in a ceremony held on Tuesday afternoon at the Docklands building.
Assistant manager for aquaculture at SFA, Veronica Alphonse, said the feasibility assessment will run for a period of two years and will be concentrated on the Mahé Plateau, with the objective of testing whether enhancement can rebuild stocks and support safe legal harvest at scale. She added that the project already began in July 2025 with a workshop, noting that it is important to conduct an exercise to re-look at the population of sea cucumbers in the country.
Algal echinoderm aquaculture mentor Dr Sebastien Devos explained that stock enhancement is a project aimed at boosting sea cucumber populations to support economic, ecological, and social development. The process begins with the collection of mature sea cucumbers from the wild, which are then induced to spawn in hatchery facilities, before being returned to their natural habitat. Once they reach the juvenile phase, the young sea cucumbers are transferred to floating net pens where they continue to grow under close supervision.
When they reach an optimal size of approximately five grams, they are released into the wild at designated sites where they can mature naturally. Once they reach market size, fishers are able to harvest them sustainably, creating a continuous and renewable cycle of production. Key activities now underway include the collection of brood stock for breeding, hatchery trials to rear larvae, and juvenile grow-out experiments using floating nurseries, with continuous stakeholder engagement to support long-term sustainability.
