Update to Port Louis and Rodrigues fishing vessels and landings forcasts Mauritius

Mauritius Ports Authority - Project Dates:
January 2016 - June 2016

Description of Project:
The Mauritius Port Authority (MPA) reviewed the planning needs for Port Louis and Port Maturin in Rodrigues to ensure that future investment in these ports is strategic in nature and contributes to the country’s vision for an integrated ‘ocean economy’ and its objective to “develop Mauritius into a major hub in the region for petroleum products, container transhipment and port services” (Prime Minister’s Office, 2013). MPA appointed Royal HaskoningDHV as consultants to review past and existing policies, plans and strategies, private sector development trends as well as external transportation and trade patterns, to prepare a port development plan up to the horizon of 2040.

Fisheries – both in form of a cargo type, as well as a raw material for port-based activities such as seafood processing – are an important sector involved in Port Louis and Port Maturin, the two main sea ports of Mauritius. This was recognised in the last MPA Port Master Plan in 2009 and this remains as relevant today. Whilst included in the preliminary master plan, it has become increasingly apparent that uncertainties over the long-term availability of fisheries resources in the Indian Ocean mean that a further, more detailed and specialist assessments required. For this reason, MPA appointed Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd of the UK to assist Royal HaskoningDHV to conduct an independent evaluation of the planning considerations for the development of fisheries-related harbour infrastructure in Port Louis and Rodrigues.

Services Provided:

Poseidon's report provided an independent assessment of the fisheries-related needs for long-term development of Mauritius’ sea ports. The assignment had three distinct tasks:

Task 1: Review the current fishing, vessel call, catch landing, transhipment, processing and fish export patterns in Mauritius and the region.

Task 2: Update the traffic forecast as reported in the preliminary masterplan for Port Louis.

Task 3: Review of proposed infrastructure for the fisheries sector in Port Louis and for Rodrigues.