Country Guide to Gamefishing in the Western and Central Pacific by Wade Whitelaw Oceanic Fisheries Programme Secretariat of the Pacific Community 2001 © Copyright Secretariat of the Pacific Community 2001 All rights for commercial / for profit reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. The SPC authorises the partial reproduction or translation of this mate- rial for scientific, educational or research purposes, provided the SPC and the source document are properly acknowledged. Permission to reproduce the docu- ment and/or translate in whole, in any form, whether for commercial / for profit or non-profit purposes, must be requested in writing. Original SPC artwork may not be altered or separately published without permission. Original text: English Secretariat of the Pacific Community Cataloguing-in-publication data Whitelaw, Wade Country guide to gamefishing in the Western and Central Pacific: by Wade Whitelaw 1. Fishing - Oceania. 1. Title 2. Secretariat of the Pacific Community 799.1665 AACR2 ISBN 982–203–817–8 Secretariat of the Pacific Community BP D5 98848 Noumea Cedex New Caledonia Telephone: + 687 26 20 00 Facsimile: + 687 26 38 18 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.spc.int/ Funded by AusAID Layout: Muriel Borderie Prepared for publication and printed at Secretariat of the Pacific Community headquarters Noumea, New Caledonia, 2001 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . .1 BACKGROUND . .2 SOURCES OF INFORMATION . .4 RESULTS . .4 WORLD RECORDS . .5 SEASONALITY OF GAMEFISH SPECIES . .5 SEASONALITY OF TOURISM . .5 SUMMARY OF INFORMATION BY COUNTRY . .6 American Samoa . .7 Cook Islands . .11 Federated States of Micronesia . .15 Fiji Islands . .19 French Polynesia . .23 Guam . .27 Kiribati . .31 Marshall Islands . .35 Nauru . .39 New Caledonia . .43 Niue . .47 Norfolk Island . .51 Northern Mariana Islands . .55 Palau . .59 Papua New Guinea . .63 Pitcairn Islands . .67 Samoa . .71 Solomon Islands . .75 Tokelau . .79 Kingdom of Tonga . .83 Tuvalu . .87 Vanuatu . .91 Wallis & Futuna . .95 CONCLUSIONS . .99 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . .99 REFERENCES . .100 GAMEFISH - BIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE . .102 Blue Marlin (Makaira mazara) . .102 Striped Marlin (Tetrapturus audax) . .103 Black marlin (Makaira indica) . .104 Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) . .105 Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) . .106 BILLFISH GUIDE . .109 Introduction amefishing is rapidly developing throughout the world as a potential source of revenue for nations, rich and poor alike. It provides increased tourist num- Gbers to an area as well as maximising a country’ s limited natural res o u rc e s . Gamefishing, especially if the fish caught are released, can provide greater economic benefit to a country than can commercial extractive fishing of the same species. This is especially true in the case of larger pelagic fish such as billfish. There are a number of centres around the world that have developed gamefishing into a major industry. Examples include Cairns (Australia), Kona (Hawai’i, USA), North Carolina (USA), Florida Keys (USA) and the Caribbean, as well as local examples in the western Pacific such as Vanuatu, French Polynesia and Fiji islands. The aim of this guide is to bring together current information on the gamefishing facilities, amenities and target species of the island nations within the central and western tropical Pacific. Hawai’i, Australia and New Zealand are not included in this guide. Most Pacific countries have some level of gamefishing, though this varies, both in the level of intensity and the main target species. This publication is a first attempt to bring together relevant information for use by researchers, fisheries managers, tourism developers and potential fishing charter operators. 1 The concept of this guide was provided and approved by country re p re s e n t a t i v e s at the 2n d Pacific Community Fisheries Management Workshop, Noumea, 12–16 October 1998. This re p o rt was produced as part of an AusAID-funded project to i n c rease our scientific understanding of billfish stocks in the western and central Pacific Ocean in order to estimate the impacts from regional tuna fisheries. This i n c reased knowledge will assist in the rational management of the fishery and in the development of sustainable fisheries for billfish (particularly island-based s p o rts fisheries). Background Gamefishing infrastructure and facilities vary widely across the Pacific; the most extensive occur in countries that have a developed tourism industry. Gamefishing, especially charter fishing, is intimately linked with tourism for its development. We have defined ‘gamefishing’ as any ‘blue-water’ fishing activity that targets large pelagic fishes, and which is not industrial or subsistence, but carried out primarily for recreation and secondarily for food. People involved in charter gamefishing include operators, members of sport and gamefishing clubs, and private individuals. Gamefishing usually refers to the use of rods and reels, and the use of line that has a breaking strain less than the weight of the targeted fish. It also generally refers to fishing under a set of rules and regulations set by a governing body, either local and/or the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). A number of countries/territories in the Pacific, such as Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, Guam and to a lesser extent New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, have quite well-developed gamefisheries with organised game- fishing clubs, tournaments and affiliations with the IGFA. In a number of other countries, gamefishing facilities are minimal, mainly because the tourism infrastructure is undeveloped. However, in these countries the rec- ognised gamefishing species may be subject to a high level of fishing for subsis- tence. Most countries have some charter vessels that offer a full service for game- fishing to anglers, at a daily fee. A successful charter operation supplies a well- equipped vessel, complete with all fishing gear (set to IGFA standards), lures, bait, and more. A captain operates the vessel, while one or more deckhands rig baits, set gear and ensure smooth operation on deck. Because charter fishing clients often come from overseas (e.g. USA, Euro p e , Japan, Australia), it is important that individual charter operations offer cert a i n incentives that are seen to be an advantage over competing areas or operators. Such features might include the availability of large specimens of a certain spe- cies (e.g. re c o rd-sized sailfish, dogtooth tuna, bigeye tuna, blue and black marlin), or the likelihood of high strike rates on the target species. A good charter fishery may average several billfish strikes per day’s fishing, which would attract anglers to travel long distances. International anglers also usually prefer comfort a b l e boats and onshore accommodation, although this is not essential if good fishing is a s s u re d . 2 A typical gamefishing boat is a cabin cruiser, usually over 10 metres in length. It is normally equipped with twin diesel engines (200 hp each, and above), plus a flying bridge, and electronic equipment such as a depth sounder and Global Positioning System (GPS). Smaller vessels are, however, quite capable of gamefishing; boats five metres and over often perform well in competitions. Modern banana boats (elongated open-topped fibreglass boats usually around 6 m long) have proved to be excellent vessels for trolling for gamefish. Gamefish are usually defined as the lar- ger pelagic species of predatory marine fish. They are categorised as such by the I n t e rnational Game Fish Association (IGFA 1999), and particularly include, all of the billfishes (marlins, sailfish, spearfishes and swordfish), all of the tunas (the true tunas Thunnus spp., as well as the little tunas and bonitos); the spanish mackerels (S c o m b e ro m o ru s spp); some sharks (notably, the mako, tiger, blue and white (where not protec- ted), hammerheads, threshers and members of the requiem or whaler group (Carcharhinus spp.); and other sundry species, including wahoo, cobia, mahi mahi (dolphin fish), and giant treval- ly. All these species may be seasonal in their catchability in any given locality, due to varying environmental parameters, mainly water temperature. While the seasonality of some species for some countries has been presented here, sufficient data for all countries is lacking. In some instances, seasonality for the spe- cies has been derived from longline data within the countries’ EEZ as well as from port landings as no data from the gamefishery exists. It is hoped that now the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has established a central database, the gamefishing industry will improve its data collection and archives. A number of countries have developed gamefishing clubs that provide a central coordinating body which organises tournaments and collects gamefish catch and effort data. Several of these clubs have provided information for this report. This work is to be encouraged. To assist with this, SPC has developed a web page (http://www.spc.int/oceanfish/) that provides tournament and charter vessel troll data sheets to record gamefish catch and effort data. The two major developed areas for gamefishing in the southwest Pacific are Australia and New Zealand. These countries support extensive private, club and charter sectors. On the east coast of Australia, gamefishing clubs are located in most major ports. Membership of east coast clubs affiliated with the Game Fishing Association of Australia is about 6000. Important charter fisheries, which primarily target black, blue and/or striped marlin, are located in centres spread along the east 3 coast between Cairns (northern Queensland) and Bermagui (southern New South Wales). Other primary target species include yellowfin tuna, and mako, tiger and blue sharks. It has been estimated that expenditure on gamefishing in eastern Australia is more than $200 million per annum (Pepperell 1994). Summaries of the history, extent and catches of the eastern Australian gamefish fishery are reported in Campbell et al. (1996; 2000) and BRS (2000).