Posted on 17-7-2002

Fish Laundering Hides Pacific Overfishing
from ens-news.com

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. This
information comes as market demand for live reef fish in Hong Kong and
other Asian markets is increasing, while Asian sources of fish are
declining as a result of overfishing.

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. This is a way that the companies are
laundering fish to hide the real origin of the fish, Barber said. 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 Islands journalists taking part in the
SeaWeb/PINA program come from Pacific Islands News Association members in
the Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea,
Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga.

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.}