PRESS RELEASE
WITH the calm weather allowing the eleven participating boats to venture further offshore, the Seychelles National Fishing Tournament saw a record catch of 7,300 Kilos of fish landed at the Marine Charter Association jetty this weekend.
The tournament which has been held for nearly 30 years was organized by the Rotary Club of Victoria (
The winning boat “Island Girl” skippered by Antoine Hoareau with Team Captain Marc Houareau brought in a record 1.5 tons of fish, mainly bottom fish such as Red Snapper (bourgeois), Bordomar, Kalkal, Job, Vara Vara, Grouper and other tasty, exotic Seychelles fish. Team “Island Girl” took home 10 first prizes out of 28 fish categories, along with trophies for the Best Bottom Fishing Catch, Best Value Catch, Best Overall Catch and of course the coveted Best Team Winning Trophy which happened to be a beautiful Marlin-Sailfish Sculpture sponsored by the VCS Group of Companies. It is to be noted that “Island Girl” also won the 2005 tournament and came out in second place in 2006 and 2007. The team of Marc Houareau, Antoine Hoareau, Guy Savy and his son Harry, Tony Payet, Marius Bamboche and Michael Jasmin has fished together for the past several years, so their experience is a definite advantage.
2007 winner “Marlin” skippered by Charles Mazzorcchi took second place in the tournament and won 4 first prizes as well as Best Trolling Catch, Best Average Catch and the Runners-Up trophies. “Marlin” also brought in the heaviest fish which was a Dogtooth Tuna weighing 57.38 Kilos and the boat landed a total of 1.36 tons of fish. Third place went to team “Belatrix” (2006 Winner) with 3 first prizes and the boat was skippered by Jude Hoareau and Team Captain Guy Khan. Boat “Venture” from Praslin brought in an exciting catch of sailfish and bourgeois totaling just over 1 ton and boat “Sea Fever” captained by Walter Larue with a crew from the Seychelles Tourist Board (STB) also caught a notable 900 plus kilos of fish.
At a ceremony held at the beautiful venue of Cap Lazare on Sunday April 13th, around 250 people gathered for a scrumptious prize-giving BBQ-lunch. Rotary Club of Seychelles President Philippe Chongseng and popular Paradise-FM DJ Sean congratulated the fishing teams who participated and also thanked all the sponsors for their generosity, and added that the Hospice Project would break ground before the end of the year.
Individual sponsors then handed out prizes to the winning teams followed by entertainment and sega-dancing courtesy of the “Island Fever” band.
The Rotary Club of Victoria wishes to thank all the sponsors and fishing teams for participating and making the tournament a great success.
