[Coral-List] American Samoa now protects all sharks plus 3 large coral reef fish species

Douglas Fenner douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
Thu Nov 15 15:12:32 EST 2012


I'd just like to add that credit for the new regulations in American Samoa
go to a lot of people, first and foremost the governor, Togiola Tulafono,
and the director of Marine & Wildlife, Ray Tulafono.  They made the
decision to do this, and it would not have happened without them.
     Many people in the territory helped with this, and a team from the Pew
Charitable Trusts campaigned here in support of doing this, for which we
are most grateful.  There is more on the new regulations on their website,

http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/american-samoa-ends-shark-fin-trade-shark-fishing-in-coastal-waters-85899426397

-- 
Dept. Marine & Wildlife Resources, American Samoan Government
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA


On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 4:15 PM, Douglas Fenner <
douglasfennertassi at gmail.com> wrote:

> **American Samoa protects all sharks, plus three species of large coral
> reef fish in its waters*
>
> The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources has promulgated new
> regulations protecting these rare marine species which took effect on
> November 11, 2012. American Samoa has acted to protect all sharks plus
> three species of large coral reef fish in all the waters of the territory
> of American Samoa.  It is now illegal to catch or even possess:
>
> 1.                        Humphead Wrasse;
>
> 2.                        Bumphead Parrotfish;
>
> 3.                        Giant Grouper; or
>
> 4.                        any species of shark anywhere in the territory
> or territorial waters.
>
> Territorial waters extend 3 nautical miles from the shoreline.  All sizes
> and ages and any parts are fully protected, at all times, everywhere in the
> territory.  These regulations are the most powerful protection for sharks
> in the USA, and provide the only protection for the other three reef fish
> within the USA, except for where all fish are protected.
>
> Because possession of all parts of these species is illegal, shark fins
> are illegal in the territory, including transshipping sharks or fins.  Because
> none of these fish can be brought into the territory, the protection of
> this regulation may extend to nearby waters where fishers would bring their
> catch into the territory.  These fish were protected first with an
> Executive Order of the Governor, and then additionally by these newly
> adopted fishing regulations by the Dept. Marine & Wildlife Resources.
>
> A recent scientific paper published by NOAA’s CRED division in Hawaii
> estimated that the territory has just 4-8% of the sharks it would have if
> there were no people (Nadon et al. 2012).  Reef sharks are slow growing,
> late maturing, and produce very few pups each year, and thus can not
> sustain anything but the lightest fishing pressure.  The primary reason
> for the low number of sharks is fishing, though other effects of human
> activities, like sediment, nutrient and chemical runoff may contribute by
> damaging fish habitat, and the number of fish is also affected by the
> amount of juvenile habitat.  Our Marine Protected Areas are too small to
> protect sharks, they swim over large areas and will swim outside the MPAs
> and can be caught.
>
> There used to be a few schools of bumphead parrotfish here, but now only
> about one fish per year is sighted, and they appear to be close to local
> extinction.  Spear fishing using lights at night is especially effective
> at taking these parrotfish, because they sleep together on the bottom in a
> school in the same place every night.  Bumpheads have been driven to
> local extinction on some islands in Fiji, something we want to avoid here..
>  Humphead wrasse are less common here than many places where there are no
> people.  Giant groupers and some kinds of sharks appear to be naturally
> rare here and elsewhere.  If the last ones are caught, they could become
> locally extinct, and we want to avoid that by protecting them.
>
> All these fish are large, reaching 4 feet or more in length and 100-600
> pounds, depending on the species.  Fishing usually removes the largest
> fish first.  There is direct evidence from a NOAA CRED study that islands
> in the US Pacific, including American Samoa, which have people have fewer
> big fish than islands without people, while populated islands have just as
> many small fish as unpopulated islands (Williams et al. 2011).
>
> American Samoa is now a world leader in protecting its large coral reef
> fish species. The American Samoa Government has adopted these new
> regulations to help fish populations recover to help create a balanced
> ecosystem which includes sustainable fishing yields and supports
> traditional cultural practices which are important locally.  The largest
> coral reef fish are overfished on most coral reefs around the world where
> people are near, making this a widespread problem.  Overfishing is one of
> the largest effects people have on reefs and can leave reefs vulnerable to
> masses of algae growing over the coral.  Large fish are very attractive
> for scuba divers, and scuba diving tourism is a major income earner for
> small tropical island countries.  In a few places like Palau, shark
> diving tourism is a major part of the economy.  Dive tourism is
> non-consumptive, and where it is feasible, can provide much greater local
> economic benefits than fishing.
>
> Nadon, M.C., Baum, J.K., Williams, I.D., McPherson, J.M., Zglicynski,
> B.J., Richards, B.L., Schroeder, R.E., Brainard, R.E. Brainard, R.E.
> 2012.  Re-creating missing population baselines for Pacific Reef Sharks.  Conservation
> Biology 26: 493-503.
>
> Williams, I., Richards, B.M., Sandin, S.A., Baum, J.K., Schroeder, R.E.,
> Nadon, M.O., Zgliczynski, B., Craig, P., McIlwain, J.L., Brainard, R.E.
> 2011.  Differences in reef fish assemblages between populated and remote
> reefs spanning multiple archipelagos across the Central and West Pacific.
> Journal of Marine Biology 2011: 1-14.
>
> ----------
> Douglas Fenner
> Dept. Marine & Wildlife Resources, American Samoan Government
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
>
>
>


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