Spearfishing in the Pacific Islands

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Spearfishing in the Pacific Islands SSppeeaarrffiisshhiinngg iinn tthhee PPaacciiffiicc IIssllaannddss Current Status and Management Issues GILLETT, PRESTON AND ASSOCIATES INC. 2 V Jan 4 SSppeeaarrffiisshhiinngg iinn tthhee PPaacciiffiicc IIssllaannddss Current Status and Management Issues Robert Gilllett and Wayne Moy January 2006 Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome GILLETT, PRESTON AND ASSOCIATES INC. 3 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .........................................................................................................4 1.0 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................7 1.1 BACKGROUND..................................................................................................................7 1.2 THE SPEARFISHING STUDY ..............................................................................................7 1.3 SOME METHODOLOGY CONSIDERATIONS..........................................................................8 2.0 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING FROM COUNTRY VISITS....................................9 2.1 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING IN FIJI ..........................................................................10 2.2 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING IN TONGA.....................................................................21 2.3 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING IN SAMOA ....................................................................28 2.4 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING IN TUVALU ...................................................................35 2.5 INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS............................................41 2.6 SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS IN FIJI, TONGA, SAMOA, TUVALU, AND THE SOLOMON ISLANDS ...............................................................................................................................46 3.0 INFORMATION FROM OTHER PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES..................................47 3.1 ASPECTS OF MANAGEMENT OF SPEARFISHING IN AMERICAN SAMOA ...............................47 3.2 ASPECTS OF MANAGEMENT OF SPEARFISHING ON ISLAND SATAWAL ISLAND, FSM ..........48 4.0 PROCFISH-C RESULTS ................................................................................................49 5.0 INDUSTRIAL SPEARFISHING.......................................................................................51 6.0 INFORMATION FROM OTHER REGIONS ....................................................................51 7.0 THE SPEARFISHING CATCH AND ASSOCIATED ISSUES ........................................52 7.1 IMPORTANT SPECIES......................................................................................................52 7.2 THOUGHTS ON SPEARFISHING SELECTIVITY....................................................................55 7.3 THE SELECTIVITY OF SPEARFISHING AS COMPARED TO GILLNETTING ..............................56 7.4 SOURCES OF FISHING MORTALITY FOR THE MAIN SPECIES .............................................57 7.5 THE CATCH OF LOW TROPHIC LEVEL HERBIVOROUS FISHES BY SPEARFISHING ...............58 8.0 MANAGEMENT OF SPEARFISHING ............................................................................59 8.1 MAJOR DIFFICULTIES AND ISSUES IN SPEARFISHING........................................................59 8.2 SPEARFISHING CONTRIBUTING TO INSHORE OVER-FISHING.............................................61 8.3 SCUBA SPEARFISHING ...................................................................................................62 8.4 WHAT WORKS? .............................................................................................................63 8.5 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON SPEARFISHING MANAGEMENT..............................................64 9.0 FAO CODE OF CONDUCT ISSUES RELEVANT TO SPEARFISHING........................65 10.0 THE VALUE OF LAUNCHING A SPECIAL REGIONAL INITIATIVE ON MANAGING SPEARFISHERIES................................................................................................................66 11.0 CONCLUDING REMARKS...........................................................................................67 12.0 REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................68 APPENDIX 1: INFORMATION ON SPEARFISHING FROM OTHER PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES ..........................................................................................................................73 APPENDIX 2: ACRONYMS USED IN THIS REPORT ..........................................................77 4 Executive Summary The SPC/FAO Pacific The purpose of this report is to review spearfishing in selected Pacific Island Islands Spearfishing countries, identify the important species caught, ascertain the major difficulties Project caused by spearfishing, explore interventions to mitigate the problems, and consider the assistance likely to be required by Pacific Island countries in the management of their spearfisheries. Approach to the Several days of fieldwork were undertaken in each of five Pacific Island study countries: Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands. Additional spearfishing information was obtained from other Pacific Island countries, developing island countries in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean and from available literature. Important • Commercial spearfisheries depleting fishery resources in areas which may spearfishing issues be quite important for village food supplies. in Fiji • The low priority given to enforcing legislation related to spearfishing. • The exclusion of “spearing” from commercial fishing activities that require a license, and the exclusion of “spearing” by outsiders from activities that can be regulated by traditional authorities under the Fisheries Act. • The difficulty of collecting evidence required for a successful prosecution of fishing with scuba gear • The difficulty of villagers enforcing rules on fisheries activities that mainly occur at night • The incompatibility of marine-oriented tourism and spearfishing, or at least commercial spearfishing • The health risks of scuba to untrained divers • The use of large “fish collection vessels” in conjunction with spearfishing. • The targeting of fish spawning aggregations by spearfishers Important • In Tonga’s open-access regime there is some concern that nothing practical spearfishing issues can be done about the excessive fishing effort, the major element of which is in Tonga spearfishing. • There are very few controls on spearfishing, and very lax enforcement of ones that do exist • Although the use of scuba for spearfishing appears to be contained, there is some worry that the situation may change if the beche-de-mer fishery and associated scuba use re-commences. • It is difficult or impractical to collect the evidence required for a successful prosecution of using scuba for spearfishing. • Some individuals are concerned about the long-term impacts of visits by industrial-scale spearfishing operations to Tonga’s isolated reef areas. • Spearfishing inside the fish fences for fish, which other people considered have already been “caught” is growing. Important • Balancing the need to protect Samoa’s inshore fisheries from the deleterious spearfishing issues effects of spearfishing with the political directive to allow the existing group of in Samoa spearfishers to continue. • Reconciling the village by-laws (which may ban scuba spearfishing) with the national level de-facto permission granted to a group of scuba spearfishers • The difficulty of reducing fishing effort from a variety of inshore fishing techniques, the most important of which is spearfishing. • Whether the export of inshore fisheries resources (an important component of which is the catch from spearfishing), is justified. Important • There is sometimes conflict between spearfishing and other gear; the spearfishing issues contention that spearing reduces the amount of fish available for line fishing. in Tuvalu • The complexity of reducing Funafuti inshore fishing effort • The concept that there are limits to inshore fisheries production is new to many Tuvaluans • The perception by some government officials that any controls placed on inshore fishing (including spearfishing) by the Fisheries Department could be thought by the general public as being contradictory to the Fisheries Department’s development efforts. • The increased algal growth in the lagoon area around the populated centre of Funafuti could be, at least partially, as a result of the removal of 5 herbivorous fish by spearfishing. Important • Fishing is an important component of inshore fishing effort and, even in areas spearfishing issues away from the urban centres, there is the perception that inshore resource are in the Solomon declining due to fishing pressure. Islands • Nighttime spearfishing with flashlights is having a major impact on parrotfish and spawning aggregations of groupers. • There is considerable concern about coral damage while spearfishing. • At least some fisheries officers feel that spearfishing is wasteful because of the damage to fish flesh and because a spear hole results in faster bacterial decomposition. Other Pacific Island Attempts were made through correspondence to acquire information on countries spearfishing and its management from Pacific Island countries besides those visited (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands). These responses are summarized in Appendix 1. Some important
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