2004 Pacific Fisheries tour

For the last two months the Rainbow Warrior travelled the Pacific Islands. We spoke to artisinal fishermen, fishing boat workers, politicians, regulators, industry leaders and really anyone and everyone.

Many are having a hard time catching all the fish they are used to - they're going farther out or staying longer at sea to end up with fewer and smaller fish. A lot of them thought they were unlucky or that there's a problem just where they are fishing. But by putting their stories together with our own personal observations at sea we realized that it is the same across the region - less fish for everyone.

Fish are part of the Pacific way. As a source of protein and a livelihood there is no current alternative for many. I do not want to think about what would happen if our fisheries collapsed. But there is hope in the growing unity I have seen across the diverse cultures of my fellow islanders. They are ready to protect their fisheries from pirate fishing and overfishing. We, all of us, now must see to it that this unity becomes action on the part of the regulators, politicians and fishing industry. We are all affected. We all need to be part of the consensus about what is done in our fisheries.

Please, as a start, sign the petiton.

-- Lagi Toribau

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Fisherwomen

(C) Greenpeace

Today we visited Tanagai village to talk with Ana Fouagale. She is a fisherwoman, which is rare outside the Solomons, but common here, where women do quite a large share of the work.

Sometimes she goes out in the bay with a boat to catch tuna, and sometimes she uses a bamboo pole to fish on the reef beside her village. She also goes spear fishing, which she says is best at night because the fish sleep, and you can spear them easily. The first time she went fishing was when she was seven. It was her father who taught her, and her husband who teaches their five sons. But she says that sometimes it's the women who teach. Ana has one daughter - too young to fish yet, maybe she will teach her.

The hermit crab and the heron

(C) Greenpeace

One of the challenges here is that foreign players, who can afford to own the big fishing vessels, are catching the vast majority of the fish. The ships doing the pirate fishing are also from these same distant countries. Islanders get only five percent of the profit, and island governments have to contend with much richer and more powerful nations for control of their own fishing grounds.

I asked Abraham Baeanisia, the Director of the Solomon Islands Development Trust, if he saw a way forward to sustainable equity in the region's tuna fishery. What I got was the story of the hermit crab and the heron:

"The heron was flying past", said Abraham, "and saw the hermit crab crawling and said to the hermit crab, 'you are rather slow', and the hermit crab said, 'Look, but I can get to my destination'. And the heron said, 'how dare you challenge me. Would you like to come for a race?' And the hermit crab said, in its wisdom, 'Yes, when and were do we start, where do we finish?' 'Right now, we start here, we go to those points on those distant islands and come back and finish here.' The hermit crab, in its wisdom said, 'But if you can give me until tomorrow morning I'm willing to come along and have the race with you'. The heron, in its foolishness, allowed that time.

When the morning comes, the hermit crab was able to talk to all its wantoks [people/friends]. And said to them you go position yourself at these points, which are the checking points. I will start here and finish here. And when the race started, heron thought that it was on its way and leaving the hermit crab behind, but when it came to a checking point a hermit crab stationed at that position would shout, 'here I am already!'

And that went on until it came to the finishing place and the hermit crab that started was already there. So the heron thought, 'well the hermit crab is indeed the winner'."

"What that means," finished Abraham, "What the story tells us is that we need to coordinate, we need to work together. And if we organize we should be able to take care of this illegal and unreported fishing."

Open boat massive

(C) Greenpeace

Huge turnout for today's open boat. We're estimating a total of 1,500 people visited in six hours. But it wasn't the big turn out that made it a great open boat day - the best thing was how people here have such a thirst for information. Many also asked about how to get involved. One local teacher showed up in the morning, and spent the whole day volunteering. He said he'd been wanting for years to see this ship.

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Solomons

(C) Greenpeace

I'm almost getting used to things like painted island warriors waving long sharp looking spears around and screaming in my face. Like eyes bugging out and good volume. Less scary only because I know this is the "challenge" part of the traditional welcome. The proper response is to hold still and stare straight ahead - not reacting at all. At least that's what I think (hope) is the right thing to do. After some of this, they huddle and I guess they decide we've had enough because they dance back down the dock they way they came, waving for us to follow. Then there's music in the local style - pan flutes and sort of pan flute drums. Not like anything I've ever heard before. Really good. One song sounded familiar, but it wasn't until the next day that I realized it was that '80s hit by Men at Work. Apparently it was by request.

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Fish hate us

Information from the ocean via space to tuna vessels

"Fish Hate Us" is the catchy headline of a website by a New Zealand software developer that specialises in 3D mapping of the ocean floor. Together with sensors on the trawl nets and sonar it has transformed the bottom trawl industry into a commercial "video game". Their slogan captures state of the commercial fishing industry, as well as the attitude of many in it.

"Becoming 'out of favour' with the fish and making more money has never been this easy", proclaims the website. And what's ever wrong with easy money?

Obviously, taking too many fish out of the sea, while good for short-term profits, has in many places led to fisheries collapse ruinous for everyone - fishermen, marine mammals, consumers and future generations. To avoid this, ideally government regulators keep fish populations at safe levels - and for that they need to figure out how many fish are left in the sea. There are a number of ways they try to do this, but one of the primary and most common measures they have is the amount of fish caught per effort expended. If it takes more (or an equal amount of) effort to catch less fish then there's a problem.

Crewmate remembered

(C) Greenpeace

There wasn't any dancing when we arrived in Pohnpei. No signing, no feast, no speeches by government officials, but the welcome was the most heartfelt of the tour because this is the home of Hayhow and his family were waiting on the dock.

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