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Exploitation of Reef Resources, Grouper and Other Food Fishes in the Maldives by Hassan Shakeel & Hudha Ahmed 1

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Exploitation of Reef Resources, Grouper and Other Food Fishes in the Maldives by Hassan Shakeel & Hudha Ahmed 1 14 SPC Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin #2 May 1997 generally accompany low replacement capacity, many While red-listing has no legal muscle, it is useful as a groupers spawn for extremely limited periods each guideline by policy makers and as a warning. year, at spawning sites often well known in time and Fisheries biologists and managers should heed this place. These aggregations are frequently heavily warning and look carefully at fishery developments exploited and several have completely ceased to form, in their region. The seas are not as bountiful as we almost certainly as a result of fishing; they represent once thought. Certain species, such as some of the important areas on which these species depend for groupers and seahorses and the humphead wrasse, reproduction. In specific examples in the Caribbean, it will not live up to high economic hopes for them in is likely that much of the population or sub-popula- the long term unless we resist the greed that serves tion dependent on lost aggregations has also disap- nothing but short-term gain and invites the scrutinis- peared as a result of excessive aggregation fishing. ing eye of the conservationists. A different suite of biological characteristics renders While there is concern for the status of stocks, there seahorses susceptible to fishing. Loss of critical habi- is still very little information on the biology or trade tat (such as seagrass beds) combined with low natur- of the humphead wrasse and the giant grouper. If al seahorse densities and the reproductive habits of anybody is carrying out any studies, or has any many species (such as faithful monogamy and low information on humphead wrasse or giant grouper rates of production of young) mean that recovery populations, such as numbers being caught or from anything other than light fishing levels may be exported, sizes of individuals observed in the field very slow. or being fished, or any confirmed cases of ciguatera poisoning from either species, I should be most The red-listing produced in April was a first draft and interested to hear about it. This information could represents a warning flag alerting us to species help us to understand better the conservation status exhibiting symptoms of, or potential for, endanger- of these species. ment at the population or species level. Debates will doubtless continue over the true vulnerability of Please contact : marine species to extinction. However, populations at severely reduced numbers are clearly at risk of extinc- Yvonne Sadovy tion through randomly determined environmental Department of Ecology & Biodiversity, events; in the absence of any management at all, such The University of Hong Kong. risks may be particularly acute. The species listed that Fax: (8520) 2517 6082; are currently traded alive appear to be particularly email: [email protected] vulnerable because of their high value and the rapidly growing demand. Exploitation of reef resources, grouper and other food fishes in the Maldives by Hassan Shakeel & Hudha Ahmed 1 The following is extracted from a paper presented at the Workshop on Integrated Reef Resources Management, 16Ð20 March 1996, Maldives. Abstract with other resource users, fisheries management has become a necessity. Exploitation of reef resources in the Maldives has become an important component of the countryÕs In order to come up with recommendations for devel- fisheries sector. Two forms of reef-fish fisheries are oping and managing reef fish fisheries, the available recognised: the general fisheries, targeting a large qualitative and quantitative information has been number of different commercial species; and the analysed in the present scenario of expanding reef-fish grouper fishery, targeting commercial grouper fisheries and increasing competition for reef resources species. Both these fisheries are expanding today. among different interest groups. For the grouper fish- ery a minimum commercial size limit of 12 inches has The developing new fisheries pose two main threats: been recommended (16 inches for the medium and over-exploitation of resources and conflicts among large size-groups of fish). Other recommendations resource users. To address the consequences of fish- include maintaining the fishery below the maximum eries diversification, intensification and interactions sustainable yield, keeping some areas temporarily 1 Marine Research Section, Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, MalŽ, Republic of Maldives May 1997 SPC Live Reef Fish Information Bulletin #2 15 closed to fishing, and doing experimental aquaculture necessity. Fisheries management calls for collabora- of groupers. Improving the collection of statistics is a tive efforts of policy makers, researchers, administra- recommendation common to both fisheries. tors and island communities. When formulating man- agement strategies, consideration has to be given to Introduction the fact that fisheries management involves imposing restrictions in some form or other on free access to Exploitation of marine resources has intensified in the resources, and dealing with conflicting interest Maldives in the last ten years. Tuna is still the domi- groups. The aim of this paper is to analyse the status nant fishery, but other existing fisheries have of reef-fish fisheries and give recommendations for increased in scale and new ones have started. In addi- their development and management. tion to fish, other reef organisms are also being com- mercially exploited. Reef-fish fisheries, which Methods remained subsistence for a long time, have now developed to a commercial scale. A recent develop- In order to come up with recommendations for devel- ment is fishing for some species of grouper to export oping and managing reef fish fisheries, the available them live or fresh. qualitative and quantitative information has been analysed in the present scenario of expanding reef Today, marine resources are being shared by two fish fisheries and increasing competition for reef important economic sectors: fisheries and tourism. resources among different interest groups. The investment of the private sector in small-scale fisheries is increasing, particularly for the exploitation The source of fisheries catch statistics was the of reef fish. These small scale fisheries, which are sup- Economic Planning and Co-ordination Section of the plementary to the tuna fishery, have considerable Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (MOFA) (1995). social and economic benefits. These activities provide additional employment for the fishermen when tuna The stock size given for groupers was calculated by fishing is poor. If the supplementary opportunities Shakeel (1994), based on the data from exploratory are not there, fishermen have to look for non-fishery surveys. The theoretical size (length) at maturity of employment during such times, often in the heavily groupers was estimated assuming that a fish general- populated capital, MalŽ. As the exploitation of reef ly spawns for the first time at half the maximum resources is expanding in terms both of variety and length it attains (Maicev et al., 1981). The maximum quantity, reef-based tourism is also developing, bring- total lengths of groupers as reported by Heemstra and ing a considerable amount of foreign currency into Randall (1993) were used to estimate the theoretical the country. Diving, snorkelling and recreational fish- length at maturity. The theoretical length at maturity ing on reefs have become major tourist attractions. of grouper species was compared with the actual size Thus, fisheries and tourismÑthe two most important of the smallest mature individuals (female, maturity economic sectorsÑhave to make compromises for stage ³ 3; information taken from a report being pre- their development. pared by Huda) caught during the exploratory fishing survey (Table 1). The length at maturity was suggest- The developing new fisheries pose two main threats: ed as the minimum size that should be allowed to be over-exploitation of resources and conflicts among caught in commercial fishing, as it will allow the fish resource users. Coral reef habitats in the Maldives are to gain considerable biomass and spawn at least once rich in variety, but poor in abundance of individual in its life. Groupers recorded from the Maldives were speciesÑa characteristic common to many tropical categorised into small, medium, large and extra-large habitats. Hence, a commercial fishery wholly based size-groups; and for each group, the average maturity on the natural stocks will soon be under the threat of length was calculated, so that it would be proposed as over-exploitation, if the fishery is not properly man- the minimum size allowed to be caught for species aged. Poor management also leads to conflicts among belonging to each group. When grouped like this, all different interest groups or economic sectors sharing commercial and few non-commercial species fell into common resources. the medium and large size-groups. Tourists do not like fishing activities at dive sites. On Fishermen will be able to distinguish the members of the other hand, fishermen believe that diving is a one commercial group from those of the other, mak- problem to bait fisheries. According to them, baitfish ing a clear distinction between the two groups. get scared and scatter because of divers. Fishermen Having a minimum number of easily distinguishable also hold the belief that removing groupers from reefs commercial groups is an important condition if it is to has a negative impact
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