Aquarium products in the Pacific Islands: A review of the fisheries, management and trade FAME Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division Aquarium products in the Pacific Islands: A review of the fisheries, management and trade Robert Gillett, Mike A. McCoy, Ian Bertram, Jeff Kinch, Aymeric Desurmont and Andrew Halford March 2020 Pacific Community Noumea, New Caledonia, 2020 © Pacific Community (SPC) 2020 All rights for commercial/for profit reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. SPC authorises 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 Pacific Community Cataloguing-in-publication data Gillett, Robert Aquarium products in the Pacific Islands: a review of the fisheries, management and trade / Robert Gillett, Mike A. McCoy, Ian Bertram, Jeff Kinch, Aymeric Desurmont and Andrew Halford 1. Ornamental fish trade – Oceania. 2. Aquarium fish collecting – Oceania. 3. Aquarium fishes – Oceania. 4. Aquarium fishes – Management – Oceania. 5. Fishery – Management – Oceania. 6. Fishery – Marketing – Oceania. I. Gillett, Robert II. McCoy, Mike A. III. Bertram, Ian IV. Kinch, Jeff V. Desurmont, Aymeric VI. Halford, Andrew VII. Title VIII. Pacific Community 338.37180995 AACR2 ISBN: 978-982-00-1319-3 Cover photos: Fish photo courtesy of A. Teitelbaum Box photo courtesy of Robert Gillett Prepared for publication at SPC’s Suva Regional Office, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji, 2020 www.spc.int | [email protected] Printed at Digiprint, Noumea-New Caledonia Contents Abbreviations used in this report ...............................................................................................vi Executive summary ....................................................................................................................1 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................3 1.1 Background .........................................................................................................................................................3 1.2 This study .............................................................................................................................................................4 2.0 Companies in the Pacific Islands aquarium trade ...................................................................5 3.0 Pacific Island aquarium product exports ...............................................................................8 4.0 Domestic prices for aquarium products ...............................................................................12 5.0 Aquaculture of aquarium products .....................................................................................13 6.0 CITES issues ........................................................................................................................14 7.0 The management of aquarium fisheries .............................................................................16 8.0 International aspects of the aquarium trade .......................................................................18 8.1 Trends in the aquarium product trade outside the Pacific Islands ................................................18 8.2 The international market for aquarium products ...............................................................................19 8.3 Demand for aquarium products from the Pacific region ............................................................... 20 9.0 Additional observations on the Pacific Island aquarium trade ..............................................21 9.1 Government services .....................................................................................................................................21 9.2 Foreign divers...................................................................................................................................................21 9.3 Export statistics ............................................................................................................................................. 22 10.0 Recommendations ...........................................................................................................22 11.0 Concluding remarks .........................................................................................................23 12.0 References ......................................................................................................................24 Appendix 1: Useful addresses related to aquarium products ......................................................26 Major wholesalers .................................................................................................................................................. 26 Useful contacts for specific Pacific Island countries ................................................................................. 26 Appendix 2: National aquarium products profiles .....................................................................29 Information on aquarium products in Cook Islands .................................................................................. 29 Information on aquarium products in Federated States of Micronesia ............................................. 32 Information on aquarium products in Fiji ..................................................................................................... 36 Information on aquarium products in French Polynesia ......................................................................... 40 Information on aquarium products in Kiribati ........................................................................................... 44 Information on aquarium products in Marshall Islands ........................................................................... 50 Information on aquarium products in New Caledonia ............................................................................ 57 Information on aquarium products in Palau .................................................................................................61 Information on aquarium products in Papua New Guinea ..................................................................... 66 Information on aquarium products in Solomon Islands .......................................................................... 72 Information on aquarium products in Tonga .............................................................................................. 77 Information on aquarium products in Vanuatu ......................................................................................... 82 Information on aquarium products in other Pacific Island countries ................................................. 86 Aquarium products in the Pacific Islands: v A review of the fisheries, management and trade Abbreviations used in this report ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research BMR Bureau of Marine Resources (of Palau) CIAF Cook Islands Aquarium Fish CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species AFF Aquarium Fish Fiji DFWR Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (of Guam) DRMM Direction des ressources marines et minières (of French Polynesia) FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FOB free on board FSM Federated States of Micronesia FTE Full-time equivalent MFMR Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Fisheries (of Solomon Islands) MIMRA Marshall Island Marine Resources Authority MMME Micronesia Management and Marketing Enterprises MMR Ministry of Marine Resources (of Cook Islands) MFMRD Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development (of Kiribati) NC New Caledonia OIE World Organisation for Animal Health PICTC Palau International Coral Reef Center PICTs Pacific Island countries and territories PNG Papua New Guinea SCUBA self-contained underwater breathing apparatus SPC Pacific Community UBA underwater breathing apparatus VFD Vanuatu Fisheries Department WSI Walt Smith International vi Aquarium products in the Pacific Islands: A review of the fisheries, management and trade Executive summary This report • This report is an overview of the fisheries, management and trade of aquarium products in the Pacific Island region. • The study involved visits to Pacific Island countries and territories where the trade is active or has been active in the recent past. Those visits resulted in the preparation of national aquarium trade profiles, which are given in Appendix 2 of this report. • Data in the profiles are compiled, compared and combined with information from the literature and from aquarium specialists to portray the aquarium trade in the region and to explore topics of special interest. Aquarium companies and In late 2019 there were 34 companies exporting aquarium products in the region. Most of employment them were quite small, especially in Kiribati (which had the most, 13). About 257 people (full-time equivalent) were directly employed by these 34 companies. The three countries employing the most people were Kiribati (90 people), Fiji (60) and Tonga (55). During the past few years, several aquarium companies in the region failed. Reasons