Following the Seychelles Sports Fishing
Club (SSFC) Marlin Slam Fishing Tournament two weeks ago which was won by Team
Island Star with a 212-kilo blue marlin, this last weekend brought some more
excitement to the scales.
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Angler Marc Houareau with his
first-ever Gorgeous
Swallowtail
|
The fish was taken to SFA and Rodney
Govinden and the SFA laboratory personnel identified it as a “Gorgeous
Swallowtail”, or “Meganthias Natalensis”
in Latin. SFA has confirmed that they
had seen only one previously in 2006 and that it was a very rare fish species
indeed. Records of the anthiine fish
genus Meganthias are rare and most species are only known from few
specimens. In February 2012 one was
caught in 150 metres depth about 10 nautical miles off Watamu Kenya and it
was the first record of the species caught from Kenyan waters.
![]() |
Angler Tarak Patel with the prized Yellowfin Tuna |
(IGFA) certified scale at the Marine Charter Association and it is the heaviest recorded yellowfin tuna taken on rod and reel in Seychelles. The fish was sold to La Plage Restaurant for SR 15,000 and the fishing team is donating the proceeds to a local charity organization.
Large yellowfin tunas such as this one was
once in abundance in the Seychelles
waters and one only had to venture to the Fond Requin bank between Beau Vallon
and Silhouette Island
or the Malgaches Bank behind Therese
Island to catch such
trophy tunas. Sadly, the influx of commercial
boats fishing in the Indian Ocean has greatly
reduced the pelagic fish stocks and as these bigger and faster vessels continue
to plunder our seas, such large tunas will continue to remain a rare sight at
our docks. Well done to all the anglers!
(This article originally appeared in the TODAY (in Seychelles) newspaper on the 30/01/2014 www.today.sc)
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