One year has now passed since we celebrated our fortieth anniversary. As we transitioned into our fifth decade under a new brand, I am proud that Team SFA maintained the momentum that enabled us to mark our milestone in such an impressive manner. Our many achievements during the past year are testament to the spirit of togetherness, common vision and pride in working for SFA.

After more than 5 years of concerted effort by many departments and staff, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act (2025) was passed unanimously by the National Assembly in June, which marks a major achievement in the country’s journey towards sustainable and modern fisheries governance. SFA now benefits from a robust legislative framework that will enable us to make great strides over the coming years in meeting international best practice in how we manage fisheries and our emerging aquaculture sector.

This followed another major achievement for Seychelles in March, when the country became the first in the World to be designated as compliant with the standard of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative. Achieving this status resulted from several years of incremental improvements in how SFA collects, manages and publishes fisheries information, which involved numerous departments and associated projects such as our innovative Fisheries Information Management System.

In collaboration with our parent Ministry and the Seychelles Pension Fund, SFA launched the Fishers Pension Scheme in April. The scheme was established to enable small-scale fishers to look forward to retirement with dignity and peace of mind. Initiatives such as this demonstrate our continued focus on ensuring that the proceeds of providing access to our tuna resources are shared for the benefit of fishing communities.

Our achievements are too numerous to include them all here, but I hope that the few I have selected provide a good representation of what can be done with good governance, a clear strategy, and most of all, collaboration and teamwork. While it is easy to focus on major achievements, it is important to remember that they are built on the multitude of daily tasks that we diligently complete and deliver for the Authority. It is for that effort and the many unheralded achievements that I would like to express my gratitude to the SFA staff on our forty-first anniversary.