Analysis of Destructive Fishing Practice in the Indo-Pacific

[clarionreef]

Food fishing for generally non-colorful live fish to ship to Hong Kong is a MAC specialty... as that industry has attracted their expertise...and their grant writing skills. To get a grant to solve that problem, one must be something of an "expert", no?
They are going for it as its a trade in need of an...
1. eco-positive image ,
2. character repair and a
3. political re-definition to make it acceptable to dump funding into and feed off it.
Lapu Lapu fishing [ grouper], panther grouper fishing, small grouper cyanide fishing for masses of grow-out groupers and the vanishing napoleon wrasse fishing are all scheduled for this eco-makeover.

[ Like Johnny Cochran coming to the aid of a nervous O.J. Mac has created a job for itself to save the guilty from the threat represented by people who really care.]

They are all coral habitat destructive and in the case of the rarer and slow growing napoleon wrasse...indefensible. Only MAC would have the nerve to cover for napoleon wrasse fishing and that is a clear indication of insincerity and pure gold-digging of the question.

They go for money above all else and thats why they have been after a cut of the live food trades gross for years. Now, its going to happen.
Apparently, they never met a non sustainable fishery they wouldn't defend or a potentially sustainable fishery they couldn't reform.

The 'debate' between food fishing and aquarium fishing is pretty much a debate over cancer and heart attacks. I'm sure one is deadlier when practiced wrong....will that make anyone feel better?
Steve

 

[PeterIMA]

Dizzy, The capture of groupers for the live food fish trade is conducted in a similar manner as the capture of aquarium fishes. The diver squirts cyanide from a squirt bottle onto the groupers hiding in holes under and around the coral heads. Mike's point is a good one, the groupers being larger don't hide in the coral heads like the aquarium fishes. Hence, the potential impact of cyanide fishing by MAF collectors may have a larger detrimental effect on the coral heads.

There also are fishes captured (in the Philippines and probably elsewhere) that are killed on the reef using cyanide. The "dead food fish trade" involves divers spreading cyanide over the reef killing everything. Del Norte et al. (1989) observed fishers near Bolinao spreading cyanide tablets from a drum on a boat zig zagging over the reef. Fishers diving from about 30 bamboo rafts were observed collecting the dead fishes off of the botttom. The IMA CDT database demonstrates that there are many species of fishes caught with cyanide that are not associate with either the live aquarium fish or live food fish trades.

As far as I know, groupers are not caught with long-lines in the Philiippines. At present there is a controversial ban on long-lining for red groupers off of Florida. The anglers blame the commercial fisherman for overfishing groupers. However, one advantage I can see to long-lines is that it tends to occur in deeper water. The IMA conducted Hook And Line Deflation (HALD) trainings in the Philippines as an alternative to cyanide fishing for fishers to capture live groupers.

I suspect that the reason that Plectropomus leopardus is the most common species of grouper caught in the Philippines is because it tends to occur in shallow water (associated with coral reefs). It is of interest that only 39.4% of the P. leopardus were found to have cyanide present in their tissues, whereas other species (that presumably occur in deeper water) had higher incidences of cyanide present: 83% of Epinephalus sexifasciatus, 82% of E. caeruleopuntatus, 61% of E. ongus, 57% of E. malabaricus, 63% of E. microspilos, 71% of E. coioides, and 64% of E. areolatus (Rubec et al. 2003).


Del Norte, A.G.C., et al. 1989. Overfishing on a Philippine coral reef: a glimpse into the future. Pages 3087-3097, In: Coastal Zone '89, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY.

Rubec, P.J. et al. 2003. Trends determined by cyanide testing on marine aquarium fsih in the Philippines. Pages 327-340, In: Marine Ornamental Species: Collection, Culture, and Conservation, Iowa State Press.

 

[PeterIMA]

I had the opportunity to observe several fishermen that were missing arms on my last trip to the Philippines. But, I was told they continue to fish anyway. The use of explosives (blast fishing) is still widespread (although it is illegal). In 1989, Dr. McManus recorded hearing 10 blasts per hour in the area near Bolinao. Ferdinand Cruz informed me that with declining marine resources there is more social stigma against blast fishing. Local communities through their volunteer Bante Dagats have also become more active in patrolling their waters to prevent blast fishing (often conducted by fishers from outside the municipalities). Cyanide fishing because it is silent, is more difficult to prevent and continues unabated.

Peter Rubec

 

[naesco]

When I read Dr. Rubec's comments on his first hand experience on the damage cyanide is doing to the reefs I have to ask you.

WHY ARE YOU GUYS CONTINUING TO BUY FISH FROM THE PHILIPPINES?

WHY ARE YOU, INDUSTRY, NOT DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

GO TO ORNAMENTALS 06 AND SCREAM AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS, ' WE CAN NO LONGER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN IN OUR INDUSTRY'

DON'T SIT ON YOUR PANEL AND BE SILENT ANYMORE!

 

[clarionreef]

Wayne,
The industry has representation and defense in the form of YOUR champion...MAC. They are the industry point men and have sold out so far as to get along with the cyanide trade that validated them!
The exporters are happy with them and can continue as before thanks to them.
Who then are we supposed to scream at?
I'm confused.
Steve

 

[naesco]

Wayne,
The industry has representation and defense in the form of YOUR champion...MAC. They are the industry point men and have sold out so far as to get along with the cyanide trade that validated them!
The exporters are happy with them and can continue as before thanks to them.
Who then are we supposed to scream at?
I'm confused.
Steve

Scream at the Philippine exporters who attend to booze it up with their Stateside felons.

Scream at the importers who are the root of the problem.

Scream at the government officials who get fat paycheques for no action.

Scream at those NGO's who have added little to improving the current situation.

But, don't any of you sit on panels and repeat was has been said time and time again. Demand change, now! Do whatever you can short of being arrested.
Call in the Press.
Call in PETA, GREENPEACE and any other worthy organization that will listen.
Grab a bureaucrat by the shirt and tell him that unless he does something his inaction will be exposed and he will lose his job and pension. And if any are on a panel that you are on condemn their lack of action and demand action as forcefully as you can. Get his business card and call his boss the following morning.

And you ask who you can scream at?

Wayne

 

[clarionreef]

WAYNE,
DID YOU WRITE....
'Scream at those NGO's who have added little to improving the current situation.' ????
OH MY GOD...A MILESTONE IN YOUR EDUCATION...!
Finally you accept a connection of complicity beyond the peddlers who frankly don't profess nearly as much to care as the NGOs.
If the NGOs in question are actually paid to work on this stuff 9-5:00 daily....and keep conniving and allying with the dealers to maintain the status quo....are they not even worse??!
Steve

PS....PETA and GREENPEACE?
Talk about ineffectual!

 

[Kalkbreath]

The vast majority of fish collected from the inshore reefs in PI are collected for self consumption. There are 100,000,000 people living in the Philippines. Most families in PI cannot afford to buy fish from each other. They catch their own free fish from the municiple reefs near their home.
If each Philipino eats one fish per week......thats five billion fish!

...........5,000,000,000. We as an industry export only one thousandth of that amount. For every nemo .....they collect one thousand more fish.
Add to this , the idea that only 20 percent of our fish are collected with cyanide and 60 % of the food fish are poisoned 9and with larger amounts0 . Then add the live food fish industry to be exported to Hong Kong.( 50,000. tons )
What we have is two other industries which combined remove cyanide fish for cyanide fish several thousand times more squirts then our industry each day. Yet , some would have us beleive that in a country which feeds itself cyanide fish , that we Americans can somehow completely root out the act of Squirt fishing in the Philippines.......

 

[clarionreef]

Hmmm,
We select our causes carefully don't we?
The need to believe in cyanide fishing for tropicals as the biggest thing out there stems from the fact that its the only fishery that foreigners [ us ] can lay claim to, insinuate themselves into and participate in.
Since its an international affair and we are the buyers....we have more of a right to butt in on its process.
NGOs prefer the aquarium trade issues because of this and because they are even more uninvolved and clueless on the food fishing stories.

No matter how destructive the food fish issues are and especially the cyanide live food fish issues...we don't eat poisoned grouper. Chinese people do.
Apparently, the Hong Kong authorities turn a blind eye to most anything relating to sustainable fishery questions. This is because they have ruined their own areas and simply plunder other peoples....buying off their officials where need be.

Steve

 

[Kalkbreath]

I agree that our industry needs to continue to adresss its own activities, but what good is it to save reefs from our collectors only to have the coral torched the next day by food fishermen? Were still going to be blamed for any cyanide damage even if our guys are clean.
Our industry cant gain anything without addressing both industries at the same time. Do we really think its possible to have sustainable MO fisheries with the food fishery guys fishing side by side our net collectors?But what has our industry ever done to adress the seafood fisheres involvement with our fishing grounds?
Even if we are sure our collectors are not poison fishing any longer trough testing ........it wont matter if the same reefs we net fish are torched by food fishermen.
I sure dont remember our industry being showered with accolades when Peters tests showed cyanide used down to ten percent. What makes any one think if we get the cyanide down to three percent, anyone will have a party? The use of cyanide in the collection of MO fish will never be Zero. Can you name any activity in the USA which has no cheaters?
Like wise its also impossible to even approach sustainability when the seafood fishermen swimming next to you is using more cyanide in one day then the average MO collectors uses in his lifetime. :wink:

 

[clarionreef]

Kalks right!
..There is so much less pressure on live food fish dealers and divers to convert to appropriate technologies as there is no outside pressure on them!
Chinese live fish consumers in Hong Kong have not exactly been outraged and appalled at getting a little poison with their panther grouper or slab of $100.00 a plate ...40 year old napoleon wrasse.

And yet, even if there did arise such a clamor... MAC will make it OK to do business in cyanide food fish and will cover the Hong Kong live fish restaurant walls with certificates....telling them to relax.
No doubt these will be certificates on facility certification...and not fish, but never mind; consumers will scan it for but a second and feel ok.
And the reef destruction will continue uninterrupted.
Steve

 

[PeterIMA]

"One concern Kalk has raised it that he believes that cyanide fishing is more prevalent (and presumably widespread) in the live food fish trade than in the aquarium fish trade? He asserted that the aquarium fish trade has taken most of the blame, and pointed to other fisheries with cyanide fishing."


"Why is it that the live food fish trade has been defined as an "overfishing issue" throughout SE Asia? Who decided that food fishes in the Philippines are caught with cyanide, but that cyanide fishing for food fishes does not occur elsewhere? Why has no cyanide testing been done in countries other than the Philippines? How will certification of the live food fish trade by the MAC stop cyanide fishing?"

Steve's previous message has the answer to my questions (posted previously on this thread). The answer is that there is no cyanide testing outside of the Philippines (and now very little in the Philippines) because the MAC rigged their certification program to sanitize (greenwash) both the MAF and the LRF trades. A recent article in the Live Reef Information Fish Bulletin #15 defined the LRF trade as an "overfishing" issue becaue the MAC got into bed with the LRF importers in Hong Kong. Presto-Bismo there is no cyanide fishing problem with the LRF trade. Sorry Kalk, but there is no direct proof through CDT (outside of PI) that groupers or Napoleon wrasse are caught with cyanide BECAUSE the MAC ensured there would be NO CDT OUTSIDE of the Philippines.

However, there is lots of anecdotal evidence that says cyanide fishing is widely used in the LRF trade in other countries than PI. There is good evidence from IMA's CDT results that groupers are targeted with cyanide in the Philippines.

Peter Rubec

 

[mkirda]

So just how is this cyanide fishing for grouper conducted? Do they dive down and find a grouper hiding in a hole, and then dive back down with squirt bottle in hand? Or do they toss pellets overboard and see what floats up? Is this data coming from interviews with actual cyanide fishers or is it speculation?

Yes, they will dive down and squirt into the grouper's hiding place. You could float on top and watch for them, although they are pretty wary and very aware of you. Data comes from personal observation of the fish's behavior, talking to the fishermen themselves, then talking it over with Ferdinand. Some of his guys used to fish with poison, so they have firsthand knowledge.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[dizzy]

Sounds like the use of cyanide to collect aquarium may well be the primary cause of cyanide damage to coral reefs. I never really thought about it like that before. There is no better and faster way than to learn the truth about this, then talking to former users that have no reason to lie or mislead.
Mitch

 

[mkirda]

Sounds like the use of cyanide to collect aquarium may well be the primary cause of cyanide damage to coral reefs. I never really thought about it like that before. There is no better and faster way than to learn the truth about this, then talking to former users that have no reason to lie or mislead.
Mitch

Mitch,

There are also quite a few cage farmers now too, all for food fish.
What they do is collect juveniles (very easy to do, you could do it) by the dozens and grow them out in cages for the live food fish trade.

Not all of the live reef food fish trade is corrupt or unsustainable. The way of the future will be catching larval fish for rearing in cages. It is being done now on a small scale in areas of the Philippines and Indonesia. It needs to become more common.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[naesco]

So Mike, Steve what are you going to tell them are Ornamentails 06?

Wayne

 

[Anonymous]

What's "Ornamentails 06"? Sounds like a fluffy dog show to me

 

[spawner]

You coming Gresham?

andy

 

[Kalkbreath]

Sounds like the use of cyanide to collect aquarium may well be the primary cause of cyanide damage to coral reefs. I never really thought about it like that before. There is no better and faster way than to learn the truth about this, then talking to former users that have no reason to lie or mislead.
Mitch

Mitch,

There are also quite a few cage farmers now too, all for food fish.
What they do is collect juveniles (very easy to do, you could do it) by the dozens and grow them out in cages for the live food fish trade.

Not all of the live reef food fish trade is corrupt or unsustainable. The way of the future will be catching larval fish for rearing in cages. It is being done now on a small scale in areas of the Philippines and Indonesia. It needs to become more common.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

The vast majority of Philipinos dont buy their food fish from fish farmers .They dont have the money to. Do these cage farmers give the fish they raise to the 100, 000,000 islanders for free? Your over looking the biggest consumers of the free reef fish in those islands and your doing so on purpose..............

 

[naesco]

What's "Ornamentails 06"? Sounds like a fluffy dog show to me

Oops! Sorry. Ornamentals