14 ‘SLAMS’ AT SEYCHELLES SPORTS FISHING CLUB ANNUAL SSFC-HEINEKEN EVENT
(Posted 04th July 2015)
Amazing results are coming in from the annual Seychelles Sports Fishing Club annual Heineken sponsored fishing event, with some 14 so called ‘slams’ setting a new record for the archipelago. Those who regularly go out for deep sea fishing the word ‘slam’ in different locations means different catches of course but here the word refers to a combination of Wahoo, Yellow Finned Tuna and Dorado.
The rough sea conditions during the SouthEast Monsoon did not deter a large number of boats to go out, manned by locals and foreign visitors like, who had come to the islands to participate in the challenge.
16 boats, up from the 10 last year, showed a rising interest in one of the Seychelles’ premier deep sea fishing competitions and fishermen and increasingly fisherwomen from around the world make their way to Mahe to take part.
Winner and runner up were this year only separated by a margin of around 7 kg’s of landed fish, prompting the SSFC Secretary Grant Heyer to say: ‘The weather was perfect. We had over 100 participants on the boats, a record 14 slams, IGFA Super Offshore Grand Slams, IGFA Offshore Grand Slams’.
Heyer then went on to comment on the practice of ‘Tag and Release’ when he said: ‘Eight billfish were released, six sailfish, one black marlin, one blue marlin, by five different teams. Two participants caught their first billfish’.
Like in last year’s SSFC-Heineken tournament and every other tournament organized by the SSFC were the teams on board their boats hoping to win the Billfish Release challenge.
The SSFC teams up with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for this particular challenge, which means all billfish caught must be tagged and released, with video evidence provided for verification purposes “[There were],” said
Winner in 2015 was Team ‘FINS’ after tagging and releasing four sailfish. Heyer ended his comments when he stated that SSFC had this year already tagged and released 93 billfish in what has for long been one of the world’s best open sea fishing grounds. The next major tournament will be held on the 25th of July.
Seychelles, with their open door No Visa policy has been attracting sports fishers from around the world in increasing numbers, capitalizing on the archipelago’s reputation of a safe destination and the ability of people to fly into Mahe often with just one stop via the main Gulf aviation hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is thought that some of the recent developments of tighter and user unfriendly Visa rules from deep sea fishing countries on the African mainland will ultimately only benefit the Indian Ocean islands tourism industry, with the Seychelles, Mauritius and to a lesser Madagascar being the main beneficiaries.
