CYANIDE FISHING IN ASIAN CORAL REEFS

[Coral Health and Monitoring Program]

This message is forwarded from the marine biology list.  It has relevance  
to our study of coral health. 

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 11:43:01 -0500 
From: DAVE SALMAN <SALMAN.DAVE at EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV> 
To: marbio at marinelab.sarasota.fl.us 
Subject: marbio: CYANIDE FISHING IN ASIAN CORAL REEFS 

SEE ATTACHED ITEM FROM 10/31 GREENWIRE 

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*1   FISHERIES:  CYANIDE FISHING DEVASTATES ASIAN CORAL REEFS 
     "In an ecological disaster that has gone largely unnoticed 
outside of the region, Asian fishing companies are using tons of 
sodium cyanide to fish the coral reefs of Southeast Asia, turning 
the world's richest marine environments into aquatic graveyards," 
reports Alex Barnum in the S.F. CHRONICLE. 
     With restaurant-goers in Hong Kong and China demanding 
large, exotic live reef fish, cyanide fishing is booming.  In the 
practice, divers squirt cyanide into coral reefs, temporarily 
stunning the fish (10/28), which are then shipped to market and 
sold at prices up to $40 a pound.  While the cyanide "is not 
toxic to people in the dose used for fishing," it is "more than 
enough" (William Stevens, N.Y. TIMES, 10/31) to destroy reef 
ecosystems.  "Within weeks, the reef's riot of colorful marine 
life becomes an empty, gray wasteland" (Barnum, S.F, CHRONICLE). 

                    AN "ENVIRONMENTAL MURDER" 
     Cyanide fishing began in the 1980s, but it has become so 
widespread -- extending from the Maldives to the Solomon Islands 
and Australia -- that it is "wiping out broad expanses of what 
ecologists say is the global epicenter of biological diversity." 
Marine ecologist Robert Johannes, who recently completed a study 
on cyanide fishing funded by the Nature Conservancy and the South 
Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency:  "We've got a big environmental 
murder going on" (Stevens, N.Y. TIMES). 
     The practice has destroyed most of the coral reefs in 
Indonesia and the Philippines, and is likely to spread next to 
Papua New Guinea and other South Pacific Islands, according to 
Johannes (Barnum, S.F. CHRONICLE).  The need to meet increasing 
demand as coral reef fisheries decline has prompted cyanide 
fishers to take more drastic action, sometimes dumping entire 55- 
gallon drums of cyanide into shallow reef communities. 

                 GROWING MARKET, GROWING STRAINS 
     "No slowing in the geographic expansion of the fishery nor 
of consumer demand is in sight," the report says.  Other nations, 
including China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, are increasingly 
involved in both cyanide fishing and the consumption of large 
reef fish.  Reefs are also under pressure from "a warming 
climate, pollution, overfishing and physical destruction." 
                      THE ENFORCEMENT ANGLE 
     Most nations have banned the use of poison for fishing, but 
governments have been unable to enforce the laws.  The report 
points to bribery as a possible cause of poor enforcement and 
suggests involving villagers in the management of coral reefs.    
     In a statement, the Hong Kong Agriculture and Fisheries 
Dept. said evidence of widespread reef destruction "is anecdotal 
and without verification through survey."  While the agency 
called the reports of reef destruction "regrettable," it said the 
capture of reef fish "is a legitimate exploitation of a marine 
resource" (Stevens, N.Y. TIMES).