1) Whose idea was this? The government of PNG seeking to open a MO fishery and seeking to do it right, or were they approached by MO types seeking to move into a new area and do it right?
The government accepted a proposal by Eco Ez to open it up so long as its done right with government oversight. To this end, even the EcoEz staff offices are in the fisheries building.
2) Why not leave a pristine reef alone? or Does it make sense to start a collection venture in a "pristine" area with no history of collection?
The local people already fish the reefs, already hear about live food cyanide fishing and already hear one scheme after another to use their reefs. If they don't benefit from it, others try to ...so this project works with them directly and develops their capacity to manage the thing themselves. Trainers will also be generated from PNG and no Filipino collectors or foreigners will ever be allowed to work in the place of a local as is the case in Tonga and Vanuatu where most of the fish collectors are Filipinos that I trained before.
3) What is/will be done to insure that the operation is carried out responsibly into the future.
We will ride herd on them for 3 years straight. We have veto cabability for any totally untrainable knuckleheads who break the coral in collecting. But seriously. There are few bad students...only bad teachers. The entire permitting scheme with the government is linked to the training and the passing the training. Fishes will be linked to catch totals and if the TACS [Total Allowable Catch] is reached, the collection of said fishes are disallowed until the next year. Surveys and monitoring are a three times a year component to check the impacts...if any on the reefs. The greatest assurance is an honestly and competently run program...of actual, genuine monitoring and training to prevent the result of incompetent, office based, city based, "theoretical" programs that have predictably failed before. Although money is always an issue it is not the only issue and not to the obssessive extent that it has been with previous non aquarium groups that have lorded over the industrys response to reform for some 20 years now. We are mainly fish folks!
4) Who are the stake holders/ adminstrators etc. besides yourself.
The EcoEz org has a president ; David Vosleer, an ast director and accountant; Tony Carmel, Reef monitoring and Survey team run by Renabte Ruz and the training team run by me with my old comrades in training long ago. MeMe Purgatorio fresh from managing a Tonga export facility and divers for a year and a half now and another; Eddie Abulag running collections in Vanuatu. Locally the survey team has a lady reef diver Selma and her counterpart, Phillip. They anchor the local team and help build it up more. Government fishery extention officers are enlisted to provide legal and official entry into the collecting villages that want and need the businesses very much.
Steve