PP-4. Monitoring of Fish Supply to Resorts and Setting up of an Ecolabel Certification
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PP-4. Monitoring of Fish Supply to Resorts and Setting up of an Ecolabel Certification 1) Report on Survey on Reef Fish Landings to Tourist Resorts 2) Guidelines on Best Fishing and Fish Handling Practices 3) Overview of reef fish sampling in K. Dhiffushi – Nov-Dec 2016 REPORT ON SURVEY ON REEF FISH LANDINGS TO TOURIST RESORTS May 2016 Muawin YOOSUF, Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture with the technical assistance of Bernard ADRIEN, MASPLAN This survey was carried out as part of a Pilot Project under the Project for the Formulation of Master Plan for Sustainable Fisheries (MASPLAN), a technical cooperation project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). All pictures taken by Bernard Adrien. REPORT ON SURVEY ON REEF FISH LANDINGS TO RESORTS – MAY 2016 1 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................3 2 METHOD ..............................................................................................................................................4 3 RESULTS & ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................................5 3.1 Estimates on reef fish production ..................................................................................................5 Estimate of Annual Reef Fish Landings to Resorts from the present survey ................................5 Comparison on Annual Reef Fish Landings to Resorts with previous surveys ............................5 Reef Fish Exports ..........................................................................................................................6 3.2 Indications on the linkage between reef fish suppliers and resorts ...............................................6 Frequency of purchase ...................................................................................................................6 Composition ..................................................................................................................................6 Origin of the supply .......................................................................................................................7 Benefits provided by resorts to fishermen .....................................................................................8 Price of Reef Fish ..........................................................................................................................9 Good fishing practices ................................................................................................................ 10 Mode of fish preservation and quality ........................................................................................ 11 4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ................................................................................. 13 4.1 Further understanding on the dynamics of the reef fish value chain in the country ................... 13 4.2 Update on the MSY for reef fish ................................................................................................ 13 4.3 Promotion of good fishing and fish handling practices .............................................................. 13 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................................. 15 ANNEX 1: Questionnaire used for the survey ........................................................................................... 16 REPORT ON SURVEY ON REEF FISH LANDINGS TO RESORTS – MAY 2016 2 1 INTRODUCTION A Pilot Project on Reef Fisheries was designed in 2015, within the implementation of the MASPLAN Project, with a major objective to set up the basis for proper monitoring of reef fisheries resources on a continuous basis, with the ultimate goal of sustainably managing the Maldivian reef fisheries and conserving the integrity of the reef ecosystems; i.e. set up the basis for the design and implementation of a Reef Fisheries Management Plan. One of the expected outputs of this Pilot Project is to come up with a better understanding on the reef fish value chain, more specifically in Malé City and North Malé Atoll. To that effect, one activity has been identified as “Implementation and analysis of a rapid survey on fish supply to resorts”. It is believed that the tourism sector in Maldives is the largest market for locally harvested reef fish. Until the emergence of tourism sector, the reef fishery was essentially a subsistence fishery, and primarily used for local consumption. Although previous studies on reef fishery had estimated the reef landings to resorts, the figures were estimated using data from a limited number of resorts. This report presents the results of the rapid survey on reef fish landings to resorts of Maldives conducted in November and December 2015, and a review of the figures on reef fish landings, given in previous studies (the scope of the present study has been expanded from merely Malé and North Malé Atoll to the whole country, so as to give a larger outlook and be compared with these previous nation-wide studies). The primary objective of the survey was to estimate the annual reef fish landings to resorts in Maldives and compare with the figures on reef fish reported through national fishery statistics. The survey also gathered information about various aspects of reef fish landings (e.g. market prices, fishing practices of the suppliers, quality of the fish supplied to the resorts etc.), which may be helpful for fisheries management and development purposes. REPORT ON SURVEY ON REEF FISH LANDINGS TO RESORTS – MAY 2016 3 2 METHOD The survey was carried out using a questionnaire designed for collecting data on various aspects of reef fish landings to resorts of Maldives. The questionnaire was converted into a fillable online form, to be sent to resort personnel via email (see Annex 1.) An initial list of all resorts of Maldives with emails and telephone numbers was compiled and updated. The link to the survey form was sent to the publicly available email addresses of all the resorts, with a detailed email with explanation of the purpose and expected output of the survey. This initial email contained a request to forward the questionnaire to be filled, to a relevant department or personnel within the respective resort. The survey questionnaire was filled by either the chef in charge or the purchase manager of the respective resort. Of the 112 operational resort properties in Maldives, 52 sent responses (i.e. a quite relevant 46.4%)1. The survey forms received from the resorts were imported directly into an Excel file at MoFA. The data from the survey was complemented with most recent tourism statistics for accurate estimation of the total reef fish landings to the resort sector of Maldives. The calculations were based on the statistics exclusive to the resorts (e.g. bed capacity, occupancy and tourist nights). The data on consumption of reef fish by tourist hotels, guest houses and safari vessels, as well as by the general public (national market), were not estimated through the survey, since those operations are thought to have different dynamics and would require specific data collection schemes. Hence, the results of the survey, as initially foreseen, are an exclusive representation of the resorts of Maldives, and not the tourism sector as a whole, or the national market. Survey Participant Resort Distribution 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Raa Baa Thaa Faafu Kaafu Seenu Vaavu Noonu Laamu Dhaalu Meemu Haa Alifu Shaviyani Lhaviyani Alifu Alifu Gnyaviyani Haa Dhaalu GaafuAlifu Alifu Dhaalu GaafuDhaalu Operational Resorts Respondents Figure 1: Bar chart depicting participant resort distribution and the number of operational resorts Registered bed capacity for each of the 52 resorts was retrieved from the Tourism Yearbook 2015 published by Ministry of Tourism. As of November 2015, the registered bed capacity for all tourist resorts was 24,511 beds, which corresponds to 6,524,432 bed nights for the period December 2014 to November 2015. 1 It should be stressed that in most cases, follow-up phone calls were necessary to get the expected answer to the questionnaire from the resorts. When the total number of answers reached about half the total number of resorts, the sample size was deemed satisfactory, and no further insistence was exerted towards the remaining resorts. REPORT ON SURVEY ON REEF FISH LANDINGS TO RESORTS – MAY 2016 4 3 RESULTS & ANALYSIS 3.1 Estimates on reef fish production Estimate of Annual Reef Fish Landings to Resorts from the present survey The survey found that, on average, a resort purchased (landed) 520.5 kg of reef fish per week, as well as 370.3 kg of tuna2. Using the total quantity of reef fish landings to resorts and the total number of registered beds for each resort, the consumption of reef fish was calculated at 0.44 kg per registered bed per night.3 Extrapolation of the consumption rate for reef fish, using the bed capacity of all resorts, gives a quantity of 3,945.8 tons of reef fish landings per year. Using this estimated total quantity of reef fish landings, and the total number of tourist bed nights for the period December 2014 to November 2015, consumption per tourist bed night was calculated at 0.60 kg, which can be used for better comparison with figures from previous studies shown in the section below. Comparison on Annual Reef Fish Landings to Resorts with previous surveys