SCRFA Update Dec 2004

Recommendation adopted: the 3rd IUCN World Fisheries Congress in Bangkok (held every 4 years) adopted a Recommendation for the better protection of spawning aggregations.

Documentary film: at last, a film on spawning aggregations from the Indo-Pacific! We have just produced a short (18 minute) educational film on fishing and conserving spawning aggregations in Fiji entitled: "Seeds of the Future: Fijian Spawning Aggregations".

Publications: a major focus of our work is education. We have just issued a new, attractive, and easy to read 21-page Handbook on managing and conserving reef fish spawning aggregations. Our much shorter introductory pamphlets are now available in four languages (English, Spanish, Chinese and Fijian), and we have posters in Spanish and English. If you think that additional translations would be useful, please let me know ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Several new field survey reports are now available on the website and all fisher field surveys for the current funding cycle have been completed. See below for a brief report from Indonesia.

Meetings: over 200 Caribbean experts attended the 57th annual meeting of the Gulf and Caribbean Institute (GCFI) meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida in early November at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and SCRFA co-sponsored a half-day spawning aggregation science session that included presentations by three SCRFA Board members: Pat Colin, Brian Luckhurst and Ken Lindeman. Pat also gave a plenary talk on connectivity and reef fish distributions. Pat and Brian gave presentations within a spawning aggregation workshop sponsored by TNC and showed our new documentary film on spawning aggregations in Fiji. The highlight of this workshop was the presence of many local fishers from the region. Ken gave an evening presentation on marine research opportunities in Cuba that included aggregation management initiatives. Brian and Ken also serve on the GCFI Board of Directors and will continue the productive relationship between SCRFA and GCFI. Next year's meeting will be in San Andres, Colombia.

A mini-symposium on the Conservation and Management of Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations was held during the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium in Okinawa, Japan (1 July, 2004). Eleven papers from 23 authors were delivered on conservation and management needs, the application of conservation and management strategies, spawning aggregation assessment methodologies, and the behavior and ecology of fishes in spawning aggregations. The range of talks was a good reflection of the current state of our understanding, or absence thereof, of aggregating reef fish species in the tropics. In particular, the need to validate the details of information acquired through interviews was discussed, to ensure its reliability for follow-up management action. An average of over 100 people attended each paper and a SCRFA members' meeting was held after the session.

Yvonne Sadovy