Honorary Fish Warden
Posted by Andrew at 11:49 PM, July 10, 2004
He isn't paid for what he does. He doesn't get a uniform. He works alone at night, confronting poachers. Yet Saimone Ratukadreu says he will continue to protect his village's traditional fishing ground for as long as he lives.
We came to Namakala village looking for the Honorary Fishing Warden. After getting permission to enter the village, we walked along concrete paths through the roadless village to Saimone's house. We'd had no way to contact him in advance, so the five of us (Michelle from the Australia Greenpeace office, Siti from the Fiji office, a videographer, a photographer, and I) show up unannounced outside his empty house. Simone's day job is farming, and he was out in the fields. A young man of the village went to tell him we were there.
Larger photo
When he arrives, Saimone invites us in, mentioning that it is customary to take your shoes off when entering a Fiji home. So we sat shoeless on the floor mat listening to Saimone, with his wife nearby and a throng of village kids peeking in the doorway. He started by showing us his license from the Ministry of Fisheries and Forests, granting him authority as an Honorary Fish Warden. The village has marked a fishing area off limits, according to traditional practice, to give the fish time to breed and recover. Sometimes outsiders come to spear fish in the off limit area, and Saimone has to chase them off. He's not alone though. The adjacent villages also have Honorary Fishing Wardens, and he has support from most (though not necessarily all) of his fellow villagers.
Later, Saimone took us down to the shore. It was low tide so we waded out along a path through the sea grass. Saimone showed us the markers designating the no fishing area. We also spoke to some of the village fishermen polling their small boat out with a net piled on board.
Although the issues being dealt with by Saimone and his fellow villagers are local in nature, they reflect, somewhat in microcosm, the fisheries issues facing the Pacific Island region.
Excerpts from the interview:
In our traditional fishing ground our community has enforced a taboo or no take zone, we noticed that the spearfishing divers are invading that area. They are stealing from our no take zone.
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Early morning at about 2:30 am, I go patrol our fishing ground. Since I don’t have an outboard engine and a boat, I have to wait for low tide. They usually just run away when I call out to the fishermen.
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Our chiefly clan of Nayavakavu in the village Namakala relies on the sea as our source of income. I as an example do not go to work, so I have to collect sea cucumber and sell them.
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As we can see that women sells marine species such as [sea urchin, sea slugs, octopus, etc.] at the market. All those marine species are from our beach/coastal area.
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After attending a community managed marine reserved MPA [Marine Protected Area], and we came to a consensus to declare and enforce a "taboo", or no take zone, within our fishing grounds, for five years. Our future generations will benefit from this taboo or no take zone.
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I believe that those who have been fish diving in a particular area for a long time, have exhausted theirs. Therefore, they move on to the traditional taboo area or no take zone to do fish diving.
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This is why I wanted to be a fishermen warden to monitor our fishing grounds... It is because I see that the fishermen are catching fish by using fish poisoning.
I tried to talk to them to stop what they are doing. They always replied if I was a fishermen warden. That was before I became one. It hurts me when I talk to them, and their reply [to me] is, [that they would stop] "if I was a fishermen warden". Then I asked my chief if I could become a fishermen warden.
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Now, I will be a fishermen warden until I die.
