Reef Fish Laundering Hides Pacific Overfishing

AVARUA, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, July 15, 2002 (ENS) - Money laundering gets the headlines from Majuro to Paris. But an untold story of fish laundering and reef destruction has become a major concern in the Pacific, conservationists told regional journalists in Rarotonga on Thursday.

In the Pacific the volume of live fish taken by foreign fishing companies for sale in Asia has risen rapidly since the mid-1990s, said Cristina Balboa of the Washington, DC based World Resources Institute.

Reef fish in the waters of the Pacific island nation Kiribati (Photo by Linda Wade courtesy NOAA)

Balboa was speaking to journalists attending the SeaWeb/Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Pacific Ocean Sciences Fellowship program in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. SeaWeb is an American organization with a strong focus on ocean science.

While Asian countries are estimated to consume up to 50,000 tons of live fish a year, the ornamental fish export trade for aquariums is also growing exponentially, Balboa said.

In 1971, just 200 species of ornamental fish were imported into the United States. Two years ago, the number had jumped to 1,038 species, she said.

The Hawaii based International Marinelife Alliance has developed a regional network to investigate live reef fishing operations and collect data, the regional journalists heard.

It is lobbying governments and communities to take control of a fishery that has destroyed reefs and fish stocks throughout the Philippines and Indonesia.

The alliance sent a team to Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands recently to survey the impact of largescale live reef fishing there, Charles Barber, its vice president, said.

Because of concern about the impact of the ongoing live reef fishing industry in the Marshalls, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funded the study, Barber said.

Live reef fishermen have an "unsavory reputation" in Asia, as a result of the heavy use of cyanide to catch fish, Barber indicated.

Some companies have resorted to attempting to hide the source of their live reef fish catches in the Pacific, Barber said, a fisheries version of money laundering. This is because of growing criticism over fishing methods and unsustainability of the fishery.

Two years ago, 45 percent of the total live reef fish catch was reported as originating in Singapore, an area that has no reefs or significant fishery.

Butterfly fish and seafan, Enewetak Atoll (Photo by Dr. James McVey courtesy NOAA)

This may have to do with the size of the catch now being produced in order to meet the Hong Kong and Chinese market demand for live fish.

Throughout the Philippines and Indonesia cyanide poison has been used by fisherfolk.

This is because it is a quick and easy way to collect the targeted fish, which include groupers, coral trout and the humphead wrasse that command up to US$40 per pound in Hong Kong.

But cyanide use is destructive, leaving dead fish and coral in its wake, The Nature Conservancy’s Paul Lokani, who is based in Papua New Guinea, told the journalists.

The Marshall Islands and Palau are the only two Micronesia area nations where cyanide use has been confirmed, Lokani said. Palau has now banned live reef fishing. But it continues in the Marshall Islands.

Since about 1997, several atolls in the Marshall Islands are known to have cut deals with foreign fishermen involved in the live reef food fish trade.

"Live reef food fish operators have been sporadically active in the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, and Papua New Guinea and have also been eyeing Vanuatu and Tonga," said Barber.

"Some of these operators have failed, due in part to the relatively high costs of transport to the main markets in China. But others, such as the fishery in the Marshall Islands, are very active. And when one operator fails, another appears."

To overcome the costs of the distance that fishermen have to travel to deliver their fish from distant Pacific islands, the live reef fishermen must fill their holds with catches in excess of 20,000 pounds.

This level of fishing in a small atoll can severely deplete fish stocks available for local consumption, say conservation officials.

The reality is that without adequate monitoring and supervision, there is no incentive for the foreign fishing vessels to develop sustainable fishing operations in the Marshall Islands and other countries, they say.

In 1997, an estimated 25 million fish with an average weight of slightly over two pounds each were exported to Asia, a large percentage coming from the Pacific.

"On the one hand, the live reef food fish trade is potentially a sustainable, low volume, high value fishery with significant potential to boost incomes in the Pacific Islands - if it is well managed," said Barber.

"On the other hand, it has been an unsustainable and destructive fishery as practiced throughout much of Southeast Asia, and similar destructive practices have been documented in a number of Pacific island nations," he said.

Barber told the regional journalists what is needed to prevent the current live reef fish trade from destroying local fisheries in the Pacific includes:

• stock assessments
  
• minimum and maximum size limits
  
• transparent and enforceable licensing systems
  
• arrangements to ensure that local fishermen get a fair price for their live catch

Conservation groups are attempting to get the the ornamental reef fishery that exports fish for aquariums controlled and regulated - not shut down, Balboa said. It is an effort to insure that this fishery becomes a sustainable operation.

Pacific reef fish (Photo by Dr. James McVey courtesy NOAA)

International journalists taking part come from such organizations as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper, MSNBC.com, "Science" Magazine, and the "Philippine Daily Inquirer."

The program is providing unprecedented access to Pacific region marine and conservation experts, the latest scientific findings on environmental threats to the Pacific Ocean, and hands-on lab and field activities.

During the program participants are meeting regional experts to discuss coral reef degradation, over fishing and destructive fishing practices, coastal development and land-based pollution, and diseases and mass mortality events among marine life.

The program is also focused on exploring ocean conservation success stories. These include the effectiveness of marine protected areas, and ways in which the traditional management of island communities practices can inform modern day solutions to ocean issues.

{Published in cooperation with the Pacific Islands News Association.}