BY EMOSI LASAQA-Mananuca Environment Society
Concern over the uses of GPS fish finder by fishermen in the Mamanuca Groups of Island was raised by the staff of Castaway Island, Fiji during a ‘bati ni tanoa’ session with the Mamanuca Environment Society (MES) on Saturday last week.
Hosted by MES Project Manager Betani Salusalu, the session which started this year was aimed at educating resort staff on resilience principles to help them approach the ecosystems they manage from a holistic perspective.
Mr Salusalu was speaking on Fish spawning aggregations-a global fisheries problem that deserves the attention of every ocean minded individual.
In his presentation, Mr Salusalu said although the problems facing global fisheries are diverse, there are increasing concern over fish spawning aggregations.
He said maintaining a healthy breeding population of reef fish is critical for the sustainability and health of coral reef systems.
“Fish spawning aggregations (FSAs) are extremely important to local ecosystems and economies, but they are not resilient to anything greater than light fishing pressure. In some cases, FSAs have been lost even from subsistence fishing, which is often considered sustainable.
“The reasons for FSAs vulnerability vary, but often it is a result of the predictable nature of FSAs formation, and the life history characteristics of many FSA-forming species. Moreover, spawning in FSAs is considered to represent 100per cent of the total reproductive output for most species studied to date, such that FSAs fishing can have profound effects on populations, often over brief time spans.”
“Our plea from MES is please stop catching fish during their reproductive seasons. Aggregation fishing can have a profound impact on the reproductive population over a brief period, and substantially reduce reproductive output,” says Mr Salusalu.
Armed with evidence, many questions were raised by the staff but the use of GPS fish finder attracted the most attention during the discussion period.
According to the staff, most fishermen who sells their catch to the resorts in the Mamanuca Islands are using fish finder to track the movement of shoals of fish both in real time, and also to predict where they will be the next day.
“Since fish comes together for spawning, they are likely to be located by sonar radar. We want to know whether there are any laws that oversee the use of GPS fish finder. These fishermen always come with large numbers of fish,” raised a concern staff.
Mr Salusalu said as far as he is concerned, there are no laws regarding the use of fish finder much to the disappointment of the Castaway Island, Fiji staff.
