SCRFA update May 2009

SCRFA continues to focus on three core areas: education and outreach; long-term monitoring of focal aggregation sites associated with training, and emerging issues. In addition to fundamental research, we conduct training in survey techniques, give presentations, conduct workshops and seek opportunities for media exposure including television, newspaper and radio. A recent article on the live reef fish trade (LRFT) in the New York Times received widespread attention.

Our work is developing principally in Fiji, Palau and the Philippines, with a new project recently set up in the Bahamas and collaborations in the Seychelles and Mexico. In Palau, we continue to work with the Palau Conservation Society in developing a robust underwater monitoring protocol for an aggregation of three grouper species at Ebiil, an important protected area in the country. Preliminary data suggest that numbers of Plectropomus areolatus have declined substantially in recent years almost certainly due to poaching at the protected site and to overfishing in general; many of the reef fishes in this country are undergoing clear declines and we had the opportunity to present results to key Palauan delegates and governors responsible for Palauan resources. In Fiji, we concentrate on a grouper aggregation site in the island of Kadavu and will be tagging fish for the first time this year to determine their catchment area, as an aid to marine protected area (MPA) work led by the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (widely known as FLMMA) project. We also work closely with staff at the Fiji Division of Fisheries Research and with the University of the South Pacific. In the Philippines, our focus is on the live reef food fish species that aggregate to spawn, in collaboration with WWF-Philippines and the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.

In addition, we are involved in a wide range of projects related to our core work (above) which build on specific outcomes or on needs identified. As one example, through a collaboration with the University of British Columbia, several postgraduate researchers conducted studies on the value of several important coastal resources. One of these studies identified the key importance that fish species that aggregate to spawn play in the overall coastal fisheries, further highlighting the need to manage them and consider the inclusion of aggregations in MPAs. In January we assisted the Fisheries Department in the Bahamas in setting up a fisher interview survey to determine the perceived current status and history of the Nassau grouper in the country and are working with the Caribbean Fishery Management Council on a region-wide overview of the status of the species, heavily affected by aggregation-fishing. We are collaborating with colleagues at Scripps on their work in Mexico to create interest and a higher profile for aggregations and will be working with the Seychelles Fishery Authority, among others, on Seychelles aggregations.

In relation to emerging issues, SCRFA is active in many other projects. These range from participation in film projects (most recently the LRFFT was addressed in ‘the End of the Line' a film to be released in June, 2009, based on the book of the same name by Charles Clover), to consultation on project development and management issues. We are also working on more conceptual issues such as the possible usefulness of aggregations as ‘indicators' of reef fish health and the question of aggregation protection per se when compared to other management options for fish species that aggregate to spawn. As part of our work in raising interest in aggregations, the plight of the Nassau grouper was selected as one of 12 marine species stories that appeared in a book produced by IUCN called "Adrift: Tales of Ocean Fragility". Written in a popular style this book has been distributed worldwide to help to improve awareness and understanding of important marine issues and has been very well received.

Although our major source of funding is the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, we also received support from the Kingfisher Foundation, the Ocean Foundation and the Caribbean Fishery Management Council for related projects. We continue to benefit from in-kind support through many of the institutions associated with our Board members.

Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson
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