Title
New report urges management reforms to save Fiji’s
sea cucumber fishery
Author(s)
Lalavanua, Watisoni ;Mangubhai, Sangeeta ;Purcell, Steven W.
Published
2017
Publisher
SPC Fisheries Newsletter
Abstract
Sea cucumbers are one of the oldest traded commodities
in Fiji, dating back 200 years (Ram et al. 2016). Due to
their high economic value in China, sea cucumbers have
been heavily exploited in Fiji over the past two decades
(Mangubhai et al. 2017a), as they have in many other
Pacific Island countries. Between 1998 and 2012, Fiji
was the second largest exporter of sea cucumbers in the
Pacific, and sea cucumber was the second-most valuable
commodity, after tuna (Carleton et al. 2013).
In the past 10 years, Fiji’s sea cucumber fishery has been
evaluated in three major reports; a study made by the
PROCFish project of the Pacific Community (Friedman
et al. 2010), a study on the status of sea cucumber
resources and fisheries management (Pakoa et al. 2013a),
and a study on the economic value of sea cucumbers in
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and
Tonga (Carleton et al. 2013). All three concluded that
Fiji’s sea cucumber fishery is overexploited and called for
urgent management actions. Pakoa et al. (2013a) further
recommended the finalisation and implementation of
the national sea cucumber management plan to address
depleted stocks. However, no management actions were
taken in Fiji and the national sea cucumber management
plan was drafted but is still not enacted.
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