Coastal Fisheries Programme
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Number 19 - August 2010
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Editor and Group Coordinator: Tom Graham, PO Box 235, Honolulu, HI 96809 USA. Phone/fax: +1 (808) 625 8755

Production: Information Unit, Division of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems, SPC, PO BOX D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia

Prepared with financial assistance from Australia, France and New Zealand.


Editor's note

It’s been more than a year and a half since this bulletin last went to press, suggesting that not much has been happening in the world of live reef fish fisheries. The articles in this bulletin, however, point to a flurry of recent activities. Let me introduce these stories in a geographical order of sorts.

In the Pacific Islands we have news on both food fish and ornamental fish. Antoine Teitelbaum and his co-authors from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme give an overview of the marine aquarium trade in the Pacific Islands. They identify challenges to achieving long-term sustainability of the trade, and based in part on the outcomes of a regional workshop, they offer specific actions that could be taken at national and regional levels. Two countries, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, have been working on their national management plans for live reef food fish fisheries, as reported by Andrew Smith, Leban Gisawa and John Leqata. Being Yeeting and coauthors report on a recent effort to train Pacific Islands fisheries personnel in monitoring and managing fish spawning aggregations.

Reporting from slightly farther afield, in Indonesia, Joanne Wilson, Kevin Rhodes and Christovel Rotinsulu share their findings from the Raja Ampat islands, where grouper aggregations have been fished for the live reef food fish trade for at least 30 years.

Examining Hong Kong as a regional seafood trade hub, Shelley Clarke emphasizes the importance of demand-side management of fisheries, makes a case for certification schemes, and concludes that Hong Kong, whose “global footprint on fish stocks is enormous for its size,” has the responsibility, and an opportunity, to lead Asia by example.

Yvonne Sadovy provides an update on the efforts made by parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to regulate the trade of humphead wrasse since its listing on Appendix II of the CITES in 2004. She cites progress, but finds there is much work to be done in dealing with illegal, unreported and unregulated trade of the species.

The Coral Triangle Initiative, focused in six Asia-Pacific countries, is a massive undertaking involving governments, inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. It is taking on a range of issues under the themes of coral reefs, fisheries and food security, including the management of live reef fish fisheries, as described in the articles by Michael Abbey, Geoffrey Muldoon and Robert Schroeder.

The contributions to this bulletin are impressive in showing the broad scope of the efforts being made to put fisheries for live reef fish on a more solid footing. They range from projects to improve local fisheries management to international initiatives to regulate trade. I look forward to seeing reports of progress on all these fronts in future issues of this bulletin.

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Contents

Aquarium trade in the Pacific
Teitelbaum A., Yeeting B., Kinch J., Ponia B. (pdf: 338 KB)
Aggregation fishing and local management within a marine protected area in Indonesia
Wilson J., Rhodes K.L., Rotinsulu C. (pdf: 466 KB)
Stakeholder workshops on managing live reef food fish fisheries in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands
Smith A., Gisawa L., Leqata J. (pdf: 190 KB)
A regional Pacific Islands workshop on monitoring and managing reef fish spawning aggregations for sustainability: A first attempt
Yeeting Y., Sadovy Y., Batibasaga A., Veitayaki J. (pdf: 149 KB)
Humphead wrasse and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
Sadovy Y. (pdf: 144 KB)
Sink or swim: Hong Kong can take a lead in Asia by supporting a certification scheme to save world fish stocks
Clarke S. (pdf: 58 KB)
International Coral Reef Initiative meeting discusses fish spawning aggregations
Sadovy Y. (pdf: 56 KB)
Coral Triangle Initiative tackles live reef fish trade reform
Abbey M., Muldoon G. (pdf: 61 KB)
NOAA/USAID-Coral Triangle Initiative partnership in the live reef food fish project
Schroeder R.E. (pdf: 237 KB)

Download the complete publication:

Live Reef Fish #19 (pdf: )


The views expressed in this Bulletin are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared
by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community
 
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