Tonga fisheries puts three year ban on sea cucumber fishing [1]
Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 20:05. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Tonga has closed the fishing of sea cucumbers for three years, starting this year to allow the stock to recover from overfishing and illegal fishing.
Dr Sione Vailala Matoto, Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Food and Fisheries said today that the Fisheries Division had already announced the closure of the sea cucumber fishery in Tonga for three years.
He said that if sea cucumber fishing was allowed to continue at its current rate it would not be sustainable.
The Fisheries officers were also working on compliance issues and appealed to fishermen and the public to support their efforts in fighting illegal fishing and to protect the resource from over exploitation.
"The main reason is because the demand was too strong and high to be sustained by the resource. This is exactly the same thing that happened in other neighboring countries such as Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, and closing off the sea cucumber fishery is the best option for the long term benefit," he said.
Illegal fishing
He said they would revise the management plan and implement activities to help the stock recover.
"One of the first things we plan to do is work with customs and police to crack down on the two exit ports, at the wharf and the airport. Illegal fishing continues because there is a black-market that that buys the resource from those who fish illegally, and we have started to collect good information on that illegal operation," he said.
Dr Vailala said the resource had been previously put on moratorium for 10 years before fishing was restarted in 2008. "The benefit people got in recent years was the result of that work but they were still not prepared enough to utilize this resource in sustainable manner," he said.
Surveys made in previous years had prompted their decision to close it down due to the low levels of stock.
"After two years, we will conduct a survey and revise the fisheries management plan and then consider a re-opening after three years," he said.
Asian markets
The export of dried beche-de-mers to Asian markets has been a viable source of income and revenue for Tonga over the years, in a midst of a general decline in the fishery industry.
Dr Vailala said he was aware that some jobs and earnings would be affected by the closure. "But we have to take a holistic approach and look at long term benefit," he said.
He estimated that foreign earnings from exporting of the resource in 2010 was up to $12 million pa'anga and a rough estimation last year was less than $10 million.
But in 2010, over 300 tonnes was exported whereas last year a reduced quota of around 100 tonnes was allocated.
The fishing season was then done in a limited period of six months, from April 1 until the end of September, with another month for process and export of the dried beche-de-mers,
Last year it was reported that 12 license were issued for export, a big drop from the 23 licenses issues the year before