SCRFA Update Dec 2003

Field surveys in the western Pacific, involving interviews with experienced fishers, continue, with results from Fiji presented below. Surveys in eastern Malaysia are set to begin the end of December, and for Indonesia in February and March. To date, these surveys have revealed over 50 previously undocumented spawning aggregation sites, many of which show evidence of recent declines, almost certainly due to fishing pressure.

We continue to support management and conservation initiatives where and whenever we can. Recently, supportive letters have been sent to the Bahamas (Minister V. Alfred Gray), Cayman Islands (The Hon. W. McKeeva Bush) and Fiji (Fisheries Department, the Tagiuba Initiative, and Mali Island).

SCRFA participated in the recent annual 56th meeting of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The message from this meeting is that interest in spawning aggregation management and conservation remains strong. SCRFA is organizing a minisymposium focusing on spawning aggregations at the International Coral Reef Symposium, to be held in Japan in June/July, 2004. There is just time to submit an abstract for this meeting - the deadline is December 25th.

The global database of spawning aggregations has taken a considerable amount of time and effort to develop but, finally, we aim to launch it on our website at the end of January, 2004. With over 500 records (aggregations) and information on a range of parameters (see www.scrfa.org), we
hope that the database will be a useful resource for aggregation-related research, conservation and management.