Chapter 3: The Blue Economy in Seychelles and The Bahamas Relative to their land area, the waters surrounding small island states is a critical source for food, trade and transport routes, employment, entertainment, etc. This chapter provides an overview of the preCOVID-19 performance of economic sectors related to maritime spaces in Seychelles and The Bahamas. While the oceans indirectly affect almost all economic activity in these countries, the stylized facts are presented for three sectors that are among the most directly affected: (1) fishing and aquaculture, (2) coastal and maritime tourism, and (3) maritime.
3.1 Fishing and Aquaculture While Seychelles, Saint Lucia, and Bahamas rely mainly on tourism, fostering agriculture and fisheries is important for preserving culture and facilitating economic diversification. The Fisheries sector – primarily marine-based capture fisheries – is an import source of foreign currency earnings, food supply and employment.
Recent Trends From 2014 to 2018, the primary sector accounted for less than 3% of economic activity in Seychelles and The Bahamas (UNCTADstat, 2020). In both countries, around 4% of workers were directly employed in fish production (FAO, 2020). However, this should not understate the importance of the wider sector which also includes fish preservation, processing, ship building and repairs, and other related activities. Table 3: Fisheries Industry Production, 2000 to 2018
Source: FAO, 2020
In Seychelles, the sector is divided between the artisanal (domestic), semi-industrial (domestic), and industrial (domestic and foreign) fisheries. The largest component, industrial fisheries, is dominated by foreign-owned and licenced vessels targeting the tuna species. Including fish-related processing increases the gross contribution of the sector to between 8% - 20% of GDP and 17% of employment (WB, 2017). More significantly, fisheries products accounted for at least half of Seychelles’ goods export earnings between 2017 and 2019. The main species targeted for export are tuna varieties. Tuna’s global popularity 21
