Trochus in the Pacific Islands region: A review of the fisheries, management and trade FAME Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division Trochus in the Pacific Islands: A review of the fisheries, management and trade Robert Gillett, Mike McCoy, Ian Bertram, Jeff Kinch and Aymeric Desurmont 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 Trochus in the Pacific Islands: a review of the fisheries, management and trade / Robert Gillett, Mike McCoy, Ian Bertram, Jeff Kinch and Aymeric Desurmont 1. Trochus shell fisheries – Oceania. 2. Trochus shell fisheries – Management – Oceania. 3. Trochus shell fisheries – Marketing – Oceania. 4. Fishery products – Marketing – Oceania. 5. Shellfish – Fishery – Oceania. 6. Fishery resources – Management – Oceania. I. Gillett, Robert II. McCoy, Mike III. Bertram, Ian IV. Kinch, Jeff V. Desurmont, Aymeric VI. Title VII. Pacific Community 338.3724 AACR2 ISBN: 978-982-00-1318-6 Cover photos: Emmanuel Tardy (Kosrae, FSM), and Antoine Teitelbaum (Vanuatu) Printed at Digiprint, Noumea-New Caledonia Contents Acronyms and abbreviations .....................................................................................................vii Executive summary ....................................................................................................................1 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................3 1.1 Trochus and its trade ........................................................................................................................................3 1.2 This study .............................................................................................................................................................4 2.0 Historical aspects of the trochus fisheries and trade ..............................................................5 3.0 Pacific Island trochus production and trends .........................................................................6 4.0 Trochus harvests outside the Pacific Islands region ................................................................8 4.1 Australia ................................................................................................................................................................8 4.2 Indonesia .............................................................................................................................................................8 4.3 Philippines ...........................................................................................................................................................9 4.4 Global trochus production ............................................................................................................................9 5.0 Domestic prices of trochus .................................................................................................. 11 6.0 Trochus processing .............................................................................................................14 7.0 Trochus processing outside the Pacific Islands region ...........................................................16 8.0 Trocus marketing ...............................................................................................................16 8.1 Product flow .....................................................................................................................................................16 8.2 Current low prices for trochus and their causes ..................................................................................17 8.3 Some speculation on the future ................................................................................................................18 9.0 The management of trochus fisheries .................................................................................19 10.0 Reef reseeding .................................................................................................................22 11.0 Trochus transplantation ....................................................................................................23 12.0 Other relevant observations .............................................................................................26 13.0 Recommendations ...........................................................................................................27 13.1 Improvements to domestic buying prices .......................................................................................... 27 13.2 Improvements in the management of trochus fisheries ............................................................... 27 13.2 Other recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 28 14.0 Concluding remarks ..........................................................................................................28 15.0 References .......................................................................................................................30 Trochus in the Pacific Islands: v A review of the fisheries, management and trade Appendix 1: People contacted for this report and their addresses ...............................................32 Buyers and wholesalers recently involved in the region ......................................................................... 32 Useful contacts for specific Pacific Island countries .................................................................................. 32 Appendix 2: National trochus profiles ........................................................................................34 Information on trochus in Cook Islands ......................................................................................................... 34 Information on trochus in the Federated States of Micronesia ............................................................. 36 Information on trochus in Fiji ............................................................................................................................ 39 Information on trochus in French Polynesia .................................................................................................41 Information on trochus in the Marshall Islands ........................................................................................... 45 Information on trochus in New Caledonia .................................................................................................... 49 Information on trochus in Palau ....................................................................................................................... 52 Information on trochus in Papua New Guinea ............................................................................................ 55 Information on trochus in Solomon Islands ................................................................................................. 59 Information on trochus in Vanuatu ................................................................................................................. 62 Information on trochus in other Pacific Island countries ......................................................................... 66 vi Acronyms and abbreviations ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research BMR Bureau of Marine Resources (Palau) DRMM Direction des ressources marine et minières (French Polynesia) FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FJD Fiji dollar FSM Federated States of Micronesia kg kilogram kg/yr kilogram per year ha hectare lb pound (weight) MFMR Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Fisheries (Solomon Islands) MIMRA Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority MMR Ministry of Marine Resources (Cook Islands) MFMRD Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development (Kiribati) NZD New Zealand dollar PGK Papua New Guinea kina PICTs Pacific Island countries and territories SBD Solomon Islands dollar SPC Pacific Community t tonnes t/yr tonnes per year USD United States dollar VFD Vanuatu Fisheries Department VUV Vanuatu vatu XPF Change franc Pacifique Trochus in the Pacific Islands: vii A review of the fisheries, management and trade Executive summary This report • This report is an overview of of the fisheries, management and trade of trochus in the Pacific Islands 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 trochus profiles, which are presented in Appendix 2 of this report. • Data in the profiles are extracted, compiled, compared, and used together with information from the literature and trochus wholesalers to portray the trochus fisheries and trade in the region and internationally. Topics