PACIFIC REGIONAL OCEANIC AND COASTAL FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (PROCFish/C/CoFish) NIUE COUNTRY REPORT: PROFILE AND RESULTS FROM IN-COUNTRY SURVEY WORK (May to June 2005) by Mecki Kronen, Dave Fisk, Silvia Pinca, Franck Magron, Kim Friedman, Pierre Boblin, Ribanataake Awira and Lindsay Chapman This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Community The views expressed herein are those of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and do not reflect the official opinion of the European Community i © Copyright Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) 2008 All rights for commercial / for profit reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. SPC authorizes the partial reproduction or translation of this material for scientific, educational or research purposes, provided that SPC and the source document are properly acknowledged. Permission to reproduce the document 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 Niue country report: Profile and results from in-country survey work (May to June 2005) / by Mecki Kronen, Dave Fisk, Silvia Pinca, Franck Magron, Kim Friedman, Pierre Boblin, Ribanataake Awira and Lindsay Chapman (Pacific Regional Oceanic and Coastal Fisheries Development Programme [PROCFish/C/CoFish] / Secretariat of the Pacific Community) ISSN: I. Kronen, Mecki II. Fisk, Dave III. Pinca, Silvia IV. Magron, Franck V. Friedman, Kim VI. Boblin, Pierre VII. Awira, Ribanataake VIII. Chapman, Lindsay IX. Title X. Secretariat of the Pacific Community, ReeFisheries Observatory XI. Series 1. Marine resources – Niue – Statistics 2. Fisheries – Niue – Statistics 3. Fisheries – Economic aspects – Niue 338.372 0962 6 AACR2 ISBN: 978-982-00-0315-6 Secretariat of the Pacific Community Coastal Fisheries Programme BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia Tel: +687 26 00 00 Fax: +687 26 38 18 Email: [email protected]; http://www.spc.int/ Prepared for publication and printed at Secretariat of the Pacific Community headquarters Noumea, New Caledonia, 2008 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) acknowledges with gratitude the funding support provided by the European Commission for the implementation of the Pacific Regional Coastal Fisheries Development Programme (CoFish).1 SPC also acknowledges the collaborative support of the staff of the Niue Fisheries Division and others for their in-country assistance, in particular Mr Brendon Pasisi, Director, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF); Ms Fiafia Rex, Fisheries Officer, DAFF; Mr Jayjay Talagi, Fisheries Officer, DAFF; Mr Morgan Magatogia, Fisheries Officer, DAFF; Mr Launoa Gataua, Fisheries Officer, DAFF; Ms Charlene Funaki, Information and Marketing Officer, DAFF; Mr Sioneheke Leolahi, Coordinator, International Waters Programme, DAFF; Mr Ron Paulin, International Waters Programme, DAFF; Mr Logo Seumanu, International Waters Programme, DAFF; Ms Vikatolia Liumaihetau, Member of the Toi Village Council; Mr Ian Gray, Dive Niue; Ms Annie Franklin, Dive Niue; and Ms Caroline Vieux, consultant, working on invertebrate surveys. Others at SPC who assisted with the production of this report were Ms Céline Barré, report compiling, formatting and layout; Ms Sarah Langi, report editing, Ms Youngmi Choi, cover design; and the SPC Translation Section, who translated the executive summary; their assistance is acknowledged with thanks. In addition, thanks are provided to Dr Serge Andrefouet and his team for the provision and analysis of satellite images used in this report for the calculation of reef-habitat surfaces. More information on this project is provided in Appendix 5. PROCFish/C and CoFish staff work (or used to work) for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia under this EU-funded project. All PROCFish/C and CoFish staff work as a team, so even those not directly involved in fieldwork usually assist in data analysis, report writing, or reviewing drafts of site and country reports. The team is made up of: - Lindsay Chapman, Coastal Fisheries Programme Manager - Kim Friedman, Senior Reef Fisheries Scientist (invertebrates) - Mecki Kronen, Community Fisheries Scientist - Franck Magron, Reef Fisheries Information Manager - Silvia Pinca, Senior Reef Fisheries Scientist (finfish) - Kalo Pakoa, Reef Fisheries Officer (invertebrates) - Pierre Boblin, Reef Fisheries Officer (finfish) - Emmanuel Tardy, Reef Fisheries Officer (invertebrates) - Marie-Therese Bui, Project Administrator - Ferral Lasi, previous Reef Fisheries Officer (invertebrates) - Aliti Vunisea, previous Community Fisheries Scientist - Ribanataake Awira, previous Reef Fisheries Officer (finfish) - Samasoni Sauni, previous Senior Reef Fisheries Scientist (finfish) - Laurent Vigliola, previous Senior Reef Fisheries Scientist (finfish) - Dave Fisk, consultant hired to conduct invertebrate surveys in Niue. 1 CoFish and PROCFish/C are part of the same programme, with CoFish covering the countries of Niue, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Marshall Islands and Cook Islands (ACP countries covered under EDF 9 funding) and PROCFish/C countries covered under EDF 8 funding (the ACP countries: Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tuvalu and Kiribati, and French overseas countries and territories (OCTs): New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna). Therefore, CoFish and PROCFish/C are used synonymously in all country reports. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ VI RÉSUMÉ .............................................................................................................................................................. X ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................................... XIV 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 The PROCFish and CoFish programmes ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROCFish/C and CoFish methodologies ................................................................................................. 2 1.2.1 Socioeconomic assessment ............................................................................................................. 2 1.2.2 Finfish resource assessment ........................................................................................................... 3 1.2.3 Invertebrate resource assessment ................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Niue .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.3.1 General ........................................................................................................................................... 6 1.3.2 The fisheries sector ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.3.3 Fisheries management .................................................................................................................. 14 1.4 Selection of sites in Niue ........................................................................................................................ 16 2. PROFILE AND RESULTS FOR NIUE .................................................................................................. 17 2.1 Site characteristics .................................................................................................................................. 17 2.2 Socioeconomic surveys .......................................................................................................................... 18 2.2.1 The role of fisheries in Niue: fishery demographics, income and seafood consumption patterns 18 2.2.2 Resource user profile .................................................................................................................... 22 2.2.3 Fishing strategies and gear .......................................................................................................... 23 2.2.4 Catch composition and volume – finfish ....................................................................................... 31 2.2.5 Catch composition and volume – invertebrates ............................................................................ 35 2.2.5 Costs and revenues: finfish ........................................................................................................... 40 2.2.6 Discussion and conclusions: socioeconomics ............................................................................... 41 2.3 Finfish resource surveys ......................................................................................................................... 45 2.3.1 Finfish assessment results ............................................................................................................. 45 2.3.2 Discussion and conclusions: finfish resources ............................................................................