Thursday 31 May 2007

Sustainable fisheries or aquaculture (seafood farming)

I have doing some detailed research into sustainable sources for seafood. My initial findings are mixed, here are my initial thoughts and findings.

Sustainable fisheries.
The Marine Stewardship Council, undertakes a detailed certification process for world fisheries. WWF Hong Kong is heavily relying on MSC certification for their Seafood Guide (click HERE for previous BLOG on this topic)

The process of certification can take upto 2 years to complete (as can be seen from the certification application of the "Hastings Fleet Pelagic Fishery", this assessment lasted from October '03 to September '05)

The list of MSC certified fisheries can be found click HERE

The list contains many North American, European and Australian fisheries and contain a variety of seafood species, however no Asian fisheries or shrimp/prawn fisheries have been certified.


Sustainable Fish Farming
There is an Asia Pacific Organisation "Network of Aquaculture Centres" " is an intergovernmental organization that promotes rural development through sustainable aquaculture", click HERE for their website.

NACA in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has initiated a certification process for sustainable Aquaculture click HERE for notes about this certification. As far as I can tell no certificates have been issued and as can be seen from the information on the NACA website their major focus is on farming and rural community development. This certiffication process is only playing lip service to the issue.

Further potential confusion is the Thai Quality Shrimp certification (click HERE) Their Good Aquaculture Practice guidelines, even though they state, should not generate any environmental impacts are focused on producing a consumer safe product.

Groups such as NACA and Thai Quality Shrimp have no real interest in environmentally sustainable seafood farming and as such these efforts should be ignored from this perspective.

The Hong Kong Agriculture,Fisheries and Conservation Dept (AFCD) has an "Accredited fish farm scheme", this again is focused mainly on production of a safe product for the end consumer.

The is obviously space for certification and following through with identification of sustainable seafood farms, however this is not yet obvious.

No real conclusions yet, my investigations will continue.

Thursday 24 May 2007

Indonesia protects 900,000 hectares through network of Marine Protected Areas

Here's some good news.

Through the setting up of seven separate Marine Protected Areas (MPA's). A vast 900,000 hectares of tropical water are newly protected in the Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat. Raja Ampat is in the far east of Indonesia, bordering the Island of West Papua and is well know as Marine Biodiversity Hotspot. Click HERE for an overall map of the area.

This announcement by the Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Mr. Freddy Numberi, was as a result of efforts and campaigning of the local Fishing Communities and NGO's organisations such as Conservation International.

What has been happening in the recent past is that because of encroachment by non local commercial fishing boats in the area the local fishing communities have been suffering increasingly from reduced catches, threatening local livelihoods. Local communities will be jointly managing the MPA's.

The area can be visited and there are a number of liveaboard operators in the area (For example, MV Bidadari, who I dived with recently in Komodo, has a sister ship Sevens Seas, that operates in the area)

Full report from Conservation International, can be found Click HERE

Monday 21 May 2007

Countries with the largest coral reef systems

I was trying to find out the comparison of the total areas of reef coverage by country. The following table extracted from the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) website, shows twenty countries with the highest total reef areas (areas in square km's)


Source : UNEP, orginal can be found here HERE

A little surprised that the Maldives was quite so low, given the size of the atolls. Other countries of note:

Sudan, ranked 24, total area 2,720

Thailand ranked 26, total area 2,130

Mozambique, ranked 28, total area 1,860

Belize , ranked 33, total area 1,330

Palau, ranked 39, total area 1,150


Wednesday 16 May 2007

Napoleon wrasse on menu - AFCD response

Further to the earlier posting, I have received a very informative response from Tony Wong, Senior Field Officer (Endangered Species Protection), Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department

"Thank you for your information and enquiry regarding possession of humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) for commercial purposes.

Please be advised that humphead wrasse was newly controlled in Hong Kong under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance since 1 December 2006. For those newly listed species, the Ordinance permits a 6-month grace period during which a restaurant may apply for a possession licence for those humphead wrasse acquired before the Ordinance came into effect. The grace period will expire on 31 May 2007. By then, a restaurant should have a valid licence to possess humphead wrasse for commercial purposes.
According to our record, an application for a possession licence is not yet received from the concerned restaurant. Nevertheless, we have taken note of the situation and will keep this in view for any necessary action. "

Very informative response....!

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Napoleon wrasse on menu in HK restaurant

Unfortunately on Saturday 12th May, I spotted two juvenile Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) in a Hong Kong restaurant. Please see the picture here (not that clear, sorry)


Juvenile (35cm) Humphead/Maori/Napoleon wrasse (take your pick)
destined for the pot, BUT isn't it a protected species?

The restaurant was the Victoria Seafood restaurant, 5th floor, CITIC centre, Central, Hong Kong.

I have sent an email to both the AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department), HKU and the WWF to seek clarity on whether the restaurant has the required CITES import permits.

This is a beautiful fish that does need protection to ensure its survival.

A useful website on the status of the Napoleon wrasse can be found HERE

Friday 11 May 2007

Saving the Sea's Bounty - National Geographic

The April edition of National Geographic "Saving the Sea's Bounty" includes a number of good articles. Here is a quick synopsis of the contents:

  1. The Global Fish Crisis: high tech fishing is 'gutting' the world oceans. Many species have declined by 90%. Have a look at one sample photo ("shrimp bycatch cascade of death"), that illustrates the tremendous waste.
  2. Another key point in this article is the horrendous fishing and fattening process that feeds the growing insatiable appetite for tuna, the much prized Bluefin Tuna, is now critically endangered. Be very careful what you eat.

  3. Blue Haven. In New Zealand a number of no take marine reserves are having amazing results and increasing the fish catch (by overspill from the reserves) Started by Bill Ballantine, local fishing communities are now avidly supporting this idea. Why can't it be done in other areas, as avocated by WWF-HK.????


  4. End of the Line. A well know story of the complete collapse of the Newfoundland Cod Fisheries. A clear example of the real human effects of unsustainable fishing.

This edition of the National Geographic is a good read.

Monday 7 May 2007

Additional Seafood guide - have a look

Being aware and careful about what we eat is a clear way to influence the major problem issues of overfishing, destructive fishing techniques and non sustainable seafood farming.

As the slogan goes:

If the buying stops the killing can too..

I have found another very informative seafood guide, which can help us to be better informed and to become advocates for sustainable seafood. This can be accessed here

This is from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it is a little US centric but I like it... why?
  1. Lots of information about what you should eat and what you should avoid.
  2. Easy to search and browse for a particular species.
  3. You can see what the fish/shell fish looks like. Very helpful.
  4. I think there are some additional ideas here that WWF can use to spice up their Seafood guide and campaign. I will send this onto them.

Click on the "WHAT YOU CAN DO" link. I have gone further and made a pledge to become a Seafood Watch Advocate. Watch out...!!

Thursday 3 May 2007

Status of South East Asian Coral Reefs

This is a broad subject that I am currently researching further. However this graph, is useful pictorially about what has been happening to Coral Reefs throughout South East Asia.

Source : GCRMN
Original found here

The longer the blue lines, the better and the shorter the brown line the better. I am not exactly sure of the methodology taken on this survey but my take on what this is showing is that between 1994 and 2004:
  1. Indonesia has shown an improvement, critically the only country to show a decrease in the amount of coral reefs with less that 25% live coral cover (LCC)
  2. Malaysia has also shown an improvement, but only in the >75% LCC category.
  3. Vietnam has the biggest decline in LCC. Their reefs look in critical trouble.
  4. Myanmar's reefs look the healthiest. But no indicator of the status in 1994. Also should be noted that Myanmar has no GCRMN co-ordinator.
  5. Philippines has also seen a significant decline in this ten year period, especially with regards to the less than 25% LCC category.

The biggest risks to the reefs were listed as overfishing and destructive fishing.

This survey does not indicate the total area of reef coverage in those perspective countries.

More on this topic later.

Tuesday 1 May 2007

Napoleon wrasse taken off the menu in Manila

A follow-up to my recent posting of 'mameng' on the menu in a Manila restaurant. Actually found out that the restaurant in question, Portico's has removed the item from their menu.

Press release can be found here here

So public campaigns can make a difference and make changes (not that I had anything to do with this particular case)

South China Sea: Scarborough Reef used as target practice.!

This is an interesting one, that I have just discovered whilst browsing.

Scarborough Reef, located 200kms to the west of Subic Bay is an area of great biodiversity:

"The U.S. military used the reef for bombing practice during the 1990 confrontation with Iraq, complicating matters. Large and unique underwater dunelike structures of organ-pipe coral tens of meters long were used as targets. Substantial areas of coral were torn apart by the explosions." Source : World Resources Institute

Short but complete article on Reefs at Risk - Scarborough Reef can be found here