Divers and Fish

[John McManus]

A company (based in France as I recall) looked into trapping reef fish for
rearing in the Philippines. We recommended against the development of this
practice there for two primary reasons. 1. the practice could rapidly become
extremely widespread and would be difficult to control via licensing, and 2.
heavily overfished reefs such as most of those there tend to be highly
dependent on recruitment from larvae and juveniles. Our experience with the
similar practice of wild-trapping of milkfish and prawn larvae and juveniles
showed that there was a strong incentive for gatherers to dump unwanted
catch on a beach so as to "get them out of the way" in future trapping.
Thus, hundreds of species are systematically removed from shorelines in
which the bulk of the (rapidly declining) fish found in markets are only a
year or a few years old.

These arguments may or may not hold true for reefs in which fishing is low,
and thus may not be as sensitive to annual fluctuations in recruitment by
larvae and juveniles.

Note that an important problem was that the practice was not expensive
enough to limit it effectively.

Cheers!


John

_________________________________________________________

John W. McManus, PhD
Director, National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE)
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS)
University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149.
jmcmanus at rsmas.miami.edu
Tel. (305) 361-4814
Fax (305) 361-4600
www.ncoremiami.org





-----Original Message-----
From: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]On Behalf Of Justin
Neviackas
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 8:27 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: Divers and Fish


  Someone mentioned that there are "responsible
Aquarium shops" that are trapping pre-settlement
larvae and raising them in captivitiy to a marketable
size.  Does anyone know the contact information of any
of these shops?  Thinking about the logistical
problems of this capturing plan, in addition to the
supply/demand issues of the aquarium trade, it seems
that this scheme would be very expensive.


--- Mark Spalding <Mark.Spalding at unep-wcmc.org> wrote:
> I've been following this with interest, and am a bit
> surprised that we haven't heard directly from the
> Marine Aquarium Council. Later this month they will
> be launching a certification scheme for the marine
> aquarium trade. This, I hope, will be providing
> certification enabling purchasers to identify fish
> which have been sustainably harvested, using
> non-damaging techniques. Whether you are strongly
> pro, strongly anti or on the fence this has to be a
> useful step?
>
> To be valuable, a certification scheme has to be
> well researched and monitored. In which case the
> poor practises we have been hearing about in Sri
> Lanka would never gain certification, but in a few
> years might see their markets drying up...and might
> then clean their act up.
>
> Surely IF this fishery could be made sustainable and
> non-damaging, with all the right controls and
> balances, then it is a potentially valuable industry
> for the reefs themselves? Providing a good income
> and foreign exchange earnings will give a value to
> the reefs which may ensure their preservation.
> Chasing the local people off reefs will reduce any
> interest in looking after them.
>
> Mark
>
> __________________________________________
>
> Mark Spalding, PhD
> Senior Marine Ecologist
> UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre
> www.unep-wcmc.org
> 219 Huntingdon Road
> Tel: +44 (0)1223 277314
> Cambridge, CB3 0DL
> Fax: +44 (0)1223 277136
> UK
> e-mail:mark.spalding at unep-wcmc.org
> or
> Research Associate
> Cambridge Coastal Research Unit
> Department of Geography
> Downing St
> Cambridge
> UK
>
>
>
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=====
Justin Neviackas
Boston University Marine Program
Research Technician
508-289-7516
"Refuse to be ordinary"   -SR
"Stupidity prevents the advancement of knowledge!"
       - Dr. Ingrid Kaatz

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