The need to improve the CNMI\u2019s understanding and management of its coral reef fisheries was highlighted in a recently published scientific study that showed troubling findings about the Commonwealth in comparison to other jurisdictions in Micronesia. <\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial Coral-Reef Fisheries Across Micronesia: A Need for Improving Management\u201d was a study conducted in 2009 to 2010 and spearheaded by Dr. Peter Houk, chief biologist of Pacific Marine Resources Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving scientific research and monitoring across Micronesia for use in sound resource management planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo our knowledge, this is the only study of its kind in the Western Pacific that\u2019s finally published and peer-reviewed,\u201d Houk said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Houk said the study, a copy of which is available on the PMRI website, www.pacmares.com, focused mainly on spear fishing and was published in Coral Reefs, a global journal dedicated to studying coral reef ecosystems.<\/p>\n
Based on the study, the CNMI consistently had the smallest reported capture sizes and\/or reduced catch rates for larger, slow-growing species. Houk said the size of a fish that one catches has an \u201cexponential relationship\u201d with the fish\u2019s ability to reproduce more.<\/p>\n
He explained that the size of a fish is also directly proportional to its function in coral reefs. \u201cThe size of the fish\u2026is directly proportional to its ability to clean. That has implications for how healthy our reefs are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study, Houk said, also revealed that the trophic composition of the CNMI\u2019s catch has fewer large, longer-lived predator fish but is abundant in plankton- and algae-eating fish. According to Houk, composition is directly related to fishing pressure and the result indicates that the fishing community in the Commonwealth is fishing harder on its resources.<\/p>\n
Another conclusion is that local fishermen need a favorable environment to generate a good catch. \u201cBy favorable environment, I mean a low moon so it\u2019s dark at night and you can do your fishing all night long, and low waves so you can get to the good spots,\u201d said Houk, noting that environmentally-dependent catch success is also a sign of unsustainable fishery.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most striking among their findings, Houk pointed out, is that the data showed that the composition of the catch in the CNMI, where it\u2019s illegal to fish using a scuba tank, has a \u201ctight relationship\u201d with the scuba-derived catches in Guam where it\u2019s permitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an indication that a lot of the fish coming into the CNMI market at the time the study was done, the bulk of the fish were very likely to have been coming in from illegal scuba operations,\u201d Houk said.<\/p>\n
He noted that the study\u2019s findings altogether validate the diminishing fishery resources in the CNMI, which would significantly impact not just the reef\u2019s health but also the islands\u2019 and personal livelihoods. <\/p>\n
Houk called for the need to fish and buy fish responsibly, given that reef fish stocks are not as endless as they appear to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears endless but that\u2019s not the case of what\u2019s going on. Fish are getting harder to catch, they\u2019re getting smaller in size, and you have to spend a longer time in order to catch them. I want the public to understand that there\u2019s a trend behind it,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n
With the release of the study, Houk expressed hope that the government and non-profit organizations like PMRI will have a \u201ctrue collaboration\u201d by improving their relationships through open dialogues, and collecting and analyzing data together to work on having sustainable fisheries in the Commonwealth. \u201cThe goal is to get management decisions based on science\u2014real facts\u2014to make better changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The need to improve the CNMI\u2019s understanding and management of its coral reef fisheries was highlighted in a recently published scientific study that showed troubling findings about the Commonwealth in comparison to other jurisdictions in Micronesia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}