EASTI HatcheryGrowout

[WayneSallee]

The main question is how can you trust the so-called reformers not to steal, embezzle, squander and waste all the money in front of a more honest audience of Filipino fish collectors that just want to go straight and have a little supply of netting.
The trust issues are more with the foreigners then with the locals.
The best talent in the Philippines is not working in the Philippines because the foreign reformers wouldn't hire them or offered them paltry wages while they kept the huge majority of the budgets for themselves.
Cheating, dishonesty, fraud, backsliding, chicanery, fudging data, fixing results...... Steve

That's one reason why I think small groups helping small groups, is a better way. For example if an importer helps a group to go from arcenic to nets, and another importer helps another group, there is less likely to be the embeselment that you see in large organizations like MAC.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets
[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

So...from the hobbyist's perspective. What can we do to help? What are we to do in order to make things better? Moving to strictly aquacultured/tank raised livestock would eventually (very far from now)render the fisherfolk obsolete. And if the MO industry stops taking from the wild, what are we to do wish the food industry?

Is this something that the industry is going to have to solve by itself? Won't hobbyists have a say on what ultimately happens?

 

[mark@mac]

Gman,

Good question.

Hobbyists have the ULTIMATE say! Hobbyists need to start talking with their $. It shouldn't always be "whats the cheapest" price! This is what ultimately controls the market..... It's all about awareness and education....

IMHO, there is plenty of room, and need, in the trade/hobby for aquacultured and responsibly collected wild organisms.

Mark

 

[PeterIMA]

I think Gman did not read the earlier part of this thread which described the aquaculture growout facility created by East Asian Seas and Terrestrial Initiatives. Cultured organisms can provide alternative livelihoods for the Filipino fishers/collectors. So, the collectors do not become obsolete. They become stewards protecting sustainable resources for the benefit of the coral reefs and the aquarium trade.

Peter

 

[Anonymous]

I think I have confused you, Dr. Rubec with the wording of my question. Maybe the term aquaculture is a little too broad. Even larval "rearing/growout facilities" are taking resources from the wild and taking these resources to an enclosed environment where they are grown, but definetely these species are not bred in these facilities.

This is the aquaculture that I'm taking about, tank bred 100% not collected from the wild kind of industry. An industry where all we have is a couple of clownfishes and gobies to select from.

Jorge

 

[Anonymous]

So...from the hobbyist's perspective. What can we do to help? What are we to do in order to make things better? Moving to strictly aquacultured/tank raised livestock would eventually (very far from now)render the fisherfolk obsolete. And if the MO industry stops taking from the wild, what are we to do wish the food industry?

Is this something that the industry is going to have to solve by itself? Won't hobbyists have a say on what ultimately happens?

Excellent question.

If we clean up the MO trade, does that really accomplish much, if the LRF trade is still running strong?

I think the ratio of caring hobbyists to non, is pretty squeued. True, there's a lot of us whom care, but the main stay of this hobby isn't really built upon us, it's the "fishy fishy fishy"<tap><tap><tap> crowd

I truly belive it's the industry itself that has to change, or rather, want to change. If they don;t want to, all the monitoring in the world won't stop it all.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I have confused you, Dr. Rubec with the wording of my question. Maybe the term aquaculture is a little too broad. Even larval "rearing/growout facilities" are taking resources from the wild and taking these resources to an enclosed environment where they are grown, but definetely these species are not bred in these facilities.

This is the aquaculture that I'm taking about, tank bred 100% not collected from the wild kind of industry. An industry where all we have is a couple of clownfishes and gobies to select from.

Jorge

and a cardinal or two

 

[PeterIMA]

Gman, Perhaps you did not read all the postings that I have made. Dr. Ralphg Turingan with his graduate students is working on breeding from eggs (full cycle aquaculture) over 20 MAF species. There are also species being reared from larvae (eg, blue tangs, damselfish, gobies). There are presently clownfish (several species) and dottybacks being reared from eggs.

In any event, we welcome your interest and the involvement of hobbyists with finding solutions to the issues concerning reef destruction and cyanide fishing. We do need to find alternatives. My point is that aquaculture in the country of origin is a viable option.

Peter Rubec

 

[Rascal]

I'm a little confused. Is there a school of though which suggests that the collection and subsequent growout of wild collected marine fish larvae is NOT a viable aquaculture solution?

 

[PeterIMA]

Rascal, I agree that rearing fish from wild-caught larvae is an aquaculture option.

EASTI's program in the Philippines has the following elements:

1) Training of MAF collectors in the use of nets as an alternative to cyanide collecting.

2) Breeding MAF and rearing them from eggs past the critical stages, then having fishers/collectors rear them in cages as an alternative livelihood.

3) Research on when and where species recruit. Harvest of the post-larvae and rearing them to a size where they can be grown out. Then, having the local people rear them in cages.

4) Working with Filipino exporters to create a market for these fish.

5) With options 1 to 3, EASTI is teaching the local people the techniques and developing standards for how the fish are collected, reared, handled, and shipped to provide quality fish that survive being transported through the chain of custody.

Peter Rubec

 

[Rascal]

I graduated from Fl. Tech before Dr. Turingan came aboard back in 1993. Dr. Shenker explained this new technique for capturing and growing out larval fish which he learned about at the larval fish conference held the year or so prior in Australia. As he explained it, this new form of aquaculture:

• establishes cottage industries and provides jobs in local communities throughout the world
• preserves the local reefs
• satisfies a demand by the aquarium trade for high quality fish

I don't see how there could be any confusion that these aren't all positives.

 

[Anonymous]

blue damsels <sang to Blue Velvet>

 

[reefcheck-rsphil]

Dizzy, I completely agree. It is essential that the collectors be involved with the underwater surveys. Ferdinand has already done this with the MAC program to create CAMPs in 2002. I stressed the fact that collectors can be trained to collect data associated with underwater surveys in my presentation at the Marine Ornamentals Conference in Las Vegas this past February.


The MAC rejected this approach (the CAMPs created by the collectors with guidance from Ferdinand) in favor of having ReefCheck doing it using their methods (MAQTRAC). ReefCheck uses Filipino biologists to conduct the surveys with less community involvement.

Peter Rubec

Hi:

ReefCheck does use Filipino biologists to conduct the wider (municipal scale) surveys on ornamental fisheries using MAQTRAC. The community is involved in site selection and other details such as when to dive in a particular site to make sure certain fish are there. This is also where further discussions on TAC with the fishermen take place (some are quite shy to open up in workshop venues).

ReefCheck’s goal of coral reef conservation is intimately tied with community involvement. Locals, mostly fishermen, are trained in the ReefCheck protocol which they employ to assess their candidate MPA sites. To validate their skills, we ask them to survey areas that were recently surveyed by MAQTRAC divers and the figures just spell how adept they are. So yes, they can be reliable! With this activity in each of our areas, the locals have formalized their MPA site and decided to delineate a total area of more than 100hectares each. Having had RC training also increased their confidence and readiness to manage their MPA.

Best regards,

Rex
RC Scientist

 

[mark@mac]

Rex,

Glad to see you here and thanks for your input!

I miss working with you!

Ingat po,

Mark

 

[PeterIMA]

Rex, How do you define an MPA? What activities are allowed inside the MPA? What activities are not allowed? How are these regulations enforced?

Once ReefCheck has done underwater surveys for an area. What is done with the data?

Peter

 

[Reef Check Scientist Phil]

Hi to all,

Yes, Reef Check also involves the fishermen during the surveys. In fact, during the community entry, a resource monitoring training is usually conducted for ornamental collectors and even other stakeholders like the people’s organization's, the village council's and the local government's representatives. This activity is important for the community to have a sense of resource stewardship. Secondarily, monitoring by local collectors is an option for long-term sustainability of resource monitoring. However, Reef Check also foresees training other stakeholders beside collectors to corroborate the data.

So, what happens to the data collected by Reef Check? As a review, the MAQTRAC surveys have been designed to:

1. describe, in a snapshot, the stocks of aquarium trade organisms in a collection area;
2. provide a scientific basis for recommending sustainable levels of collection;
3. recommend the locations for no-take and rehabilitation zones;
4. determine the impact of the aquarium trade; and
5. measure overall coral reef health.


The results of the data and the subsequent results and recommendations are packaged together with other relevant information on the socio-economics, status of fisheries, etc. in an Area Profile. The profile is a compilation of all the information gathered by the marine biologists, community organizers, business trainers, local stakeholders, collectors and other fishermen. So this profile is a compilation of all baseline data in an area. It is prepared for and presented to the community (village, local government and other stakeholders) as a basis for resource management planning. We even encourage the local stakeholders themselves to present the data, the results and the recommendations for them to have a sense of resource ownership, an important prerequisite for effective coastal resource management planning and implementation.

Yours,

Domingo Ochavillo
Reef Check Scientist

 

[PeterIMA]

Domingo,

Thank you for your response. Can you provide copies of any of the reports prepared for the communities? Can you show how the data is being applied for better management of the aquarium fisheries?

Please also define the term MPA. How are MPAs being protected in the areas surveyed by ReefCheck? What alternative livelihoods have been created by either ReefCheck, CCIF, or the MAC?

Peter Rubec

 

[reefcheck-rsphil]

Hi Peter:

I have been using the term MPA in this forum in its generic sense (IUCN 1988). It has many forms but the MPAs we help communities set-up are actually marine sanctuaries (Phil. Republic Act 8550 Chap IV, Sec 81), also called no-take zones (Sale et al. 2005). Each area has its nuances as well but the stakeholders have the final say on the size, structure and even the name of their MPA. You can have a graded system of protection that has a core zone or no-take zone (NTZ), a buffer zone and a sustainable use zone. Essentially, the NTZ is free from any form of human activity except study purposes. Again, the particular activities and intensities allowed in the buffer and sustainable use zones (the latter when present) are area specific and are normally decided to sustain the particular fisheries of the area.

Consequent to drafting the guidelines of the MPA and having them legislated at the Local Government Unit, MAC has taken charge in setting up the law enforcement for each area. This is in association with the BFAR of the Philippine Govt.

Best regards,

Rex

 

[dizzy]

Peter,
I heard much of the work on the breeding and holding facilities done by Dr. Ralph Turingan and Ferdinand has been wiped away by the multiple typhoons that have hit PI this year. What say you?
Mitch

 

[PeterIMA]

Dizzy, Yes, the hatchery situated in Banao near Legaspi City was destroyed by a typhoon several months ago. A new hatchery with concrete walls is under construction at a different location.

The area near Legaspi City was hit by another typhoon last week. Here is a description of what happened.

Last Thursday, there was a typhoon (Durian) that hit the Legaspi area. It caused a tidal surge that engulfed many parts in the city and surrounding area. Much of the city was also inundated with mud and floodwaters off of the nearby volcanoe (Mayon).

Some quotes from the St. Petersburg Times follow:

"For nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, mudslides ripped through Mayon's gullies, uprooted trees, flattened houses, and engulfed people. Entire hamlets were swamped..."

"The disaster covered almost every corner of this province. ...It's terrible, we now call this place a black dessert: Noel Rosal mayor of Legaspi City, Albay province's capital, said after visiting one stricken village." Rosal said that 3 of 5 communities making up the village of Guinobatan consisting of 1,400 people had been wiped out, with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris." He said that people claimed that some boulders were as big as cars and red hot, suggesting fresh lava from 8,077 foot mount Mayon."

Roque who works with Ferdinand and transports fishes to Manila lost his home situated in Legaspi City proper. Fortunately, his family survived. He thought his house was safe because it was on high ground. The hamlet next to him was inundated with mud and everyone was killed.

The area where we had the hatchery in Banao (situated about 15 miles outside of Legaspi City) was also completely destroyed. It is estimated that at least 30 miles of shoreline on the NW side of the city was affected by mudslides from the volcanoe. About a million people reside in the area. So, the deathtoll may be very high.

We are still trying to learn about the collectors and their families situated in outlying areas. Most survived but some lost their families. Several walked for seven hours over mud and fetid water to reach a bus depot to go to Manila where they met with Ferdinand. A fisheries officer who has worked with Ferdinand and supported the collectors (with permits etc) was killed on the Island of Rapu Rapu.

Most people in the area lack food, water, and shelter. Ferdinand Cruz has been sending supplies to the aquarium fish collectors we have been working with him.

Peter Rubec