L’Austral will remain 100% dedicated to its southern lobster fishing activity, announced Sapmer on April 11. The emblematic boat of the Reunion shipping company obtained the right last year to request annual toothfish fishing authorizations, but had not yet exercised it. Sapmer is concerned about the return of Réunion Pêche Australe shipping companies to the fishery, who acquired a ship, the Atlas Cove, to start operating. But also "the current environment which is experiencing a strong inflationary surge both on operating costs and on ship renewal costs and encourages Sapmer not to maintain the Austral's candidacy for a diversification of its activities towards toothfish fishing, specifies Adrien de Chomereau, president of armaments. Sapmer wants to preserve the socio-economic balance of the fishery and thus perpetuate the future of the Reunion toothfish industry as a whole., the maximum number of ships making it possible to guarantee these balances having already been achieved”. Furthermore, for the first time in its history, Sapmer must share the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam lobster quota with another shipping company : Future Fishing Meeting by Laurent Virapoullé, which obtained a quota of 17 tonnes in 2022, Sapmer retaining 383 tonnes.
