Crowding out the foreign fishers
Posted by Andrew via Email at 10:20 PM, July 27, 2004
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| (C) Greenpeace/Natalie Behring |
We've come to Kiribati aware that fish is the most important resource for this country's economy. With one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the region (3.5 million square kilometres), Kiribati gives out more fishing licences than it's neighbours, and earns about $42million (US) a year in license and access fees. We were interested in how the Government deals with the dilemma of needing to make money out of fish while also needing to protect their fishery from overfishing.
So we went to speak with the Senior Resource Economist with the Kiribati Fisheries Department, Tetoaiti Tabokai who has the job of managing this dilemma.
Larger photo
His job is made harder since a recent finding by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. "Recently they advised that there has been an increase in the catch of juvenile Big Eye and Yellow Fin through purse seining," Tabokai explained.
This is the type of commercial fishing which uses large circular nets to capture whole schools of fish (as well as lots of 'unwanted' species which become 'by-catch').
"The juveniles used to run with the Skipjack (a smaller, more prevalent species of tuna), and they get caught together with the purse seine fishing... Most Pacific countries are working on how to limit the number of purse seiners. And the use of FADs – Fish Aggregating Devices that go with this type of fishing."
Another issue the government is grappling with is how to make sure the wealth of the fishery flows back to Kiribati instead of pouring out to foreign fishing fleets. Most Pacific countries are lucky if they get more than 5% of the value of the fish caught in their waters.
"We're trying to encourage our local fishers to invest in conventional ways of fishing, especially long-line fishing, so that they get more value for their catch. The fishing industry we have now is based on artisanal fishing – trolling for Skipjacks and selling them beside the road. A lot of people participate in that."
But despite offering training programs in long-line fishing, the government has not been able to entice local fishers to take the leap to a more commercial style of operating. Perhaps this is because, there are not many overheads with a small motorboat, and traditional methods have been passed on from father to son for generations.
One of Tarawa's most successful local fishermen is Ekueta Ieremia. He runs seven small fishing boats working with more than 20 staff, including his son. They catch between one and two thousand pounds of Skipjack a day. Ekueta can't see the point of giving up his successful fishing style for one with big risks:
"Many people have come here and asked me to do this type of fishing, but the question is, why don't people jump to it and make money out of it? Otherwise I would go for it. The way I look at it, it's not a good way of fishing for the locals."
But Resource Economist Tabokai is convinced that the best hope for Kiribati to make the most of its marine resources is to stop being dependent on the small returns from licence fees from foreign fishers by developing a locally based export industry:
"When we develop the local industry, that means we'll be crowding out those others – the Distant Water Fishing Nations, eventually. Stocks are limited, the main aim of our Tuna Management Plan is to encourage our fishers to fish these waters (in a more commercial way)."
He says the Department is now looking at bringing foreign investors in to start locally based long-line operations, so that local fisherman can see that this style of fishing can be successful here.
