In Solomon Islands, artisanal fisheries have been an important part of life for generations. Over the past couple decades, the marine aquarium fishery has, according to some, proven a viable and especially sustainable fisheries model capable of connecting remote fishers to global markets and bringing appropriate socio-economic growth to remote coastal villages. Continuing on his popular series of articles on sustainability and the marine aquarium trade for CORAL Magazine, Ret is returning to the South Pacific to observe these fisheries, meet the fishers and dive the reefs of Solomon Islands. This is that story.
Walt was kind enough to open his home back up to me, which I really appreciate. So I am once again back at the house at the top of the street with my buddy Peanut. Since Chris lives just down the street, it makes coordinating trips to and from the facility that much easier, and Chris and Kristine, along with their two children, have been so very gracious in inviting me into their lives. Not only have I benefited from their cooking, but I have been able to glean some important insights into Fiji that would have remained illusive.
Today was a good day full of much research, photography and interviews. I spent the morning interviewing a couple individuals responsible for conducting reef surveys around Fiji, and then I headed over to Walt Smith International for the afternoon, where Florina Veidreyaki, Chris and others helped me better understand the qoliqoli system.
In addition to researching my article for Coral Magazine on the sustainability of wild collection of marine aquarium animals in Fiji, I have also been providing my friend Mark Martin at Blue Zoo Aquatics with some exclusive field reports for Blue Zoo's electronic newsletter. In today's report, I explained the qoliqoli system here in Fiji. While the qoliqoli system certain has important implications for environmental stability, I am quite interested in how the qoliqoli system supports socio-economic sustainability in coastal villages around Fiji. To quote from the Blue Zoo News article:
After interviewing a wide range of people from Fijian fishers and Fisheries Division representatives to international operators of export facilities like Walt Smith International, the most common working definition of a qoliqoli I came across was 'a traditional fishing ground.' More specifically, it is an area where a social unit of Fijians—anything from a simple family group to a collection of clans or tribes (known as a yavusa)—has traditional customary rights. In some cases, a qoliqoli may extend all the way from the mean high water mark to the outer boundaries of fringing reefs. There are 410 qoliqolis in Fiji.
The whole article goes into more depth, but the bottom line is that in order for an operator like Walt Smith International to collect aquarium fishes, corals or live rock in Fiji, that operator must broker a deal with the chief or chiefs which oversee the qoliqoli in question. In this way, the local villagers, fishers or not, benefit from the marine aquarium trade, as well as from any other person who wants to utilize the fishery. This is different than in some other countries where the government is able to permit operators to fish in waters adjacent to villages that might have a historic relationship with the fishery. It's worth noting that, even in my limited experience in Fiji, it is readily apparent that there is great disagreement about what the customary rights holders in a qoliqoli possess. Do they possess ownership rights, as some native Fijians I have interviewed claim, or is it only a "use right", as those I have interviewed from Fisheries Division tell me?
Controversy aside, I can't help but think that the qoliqoli system is an interesting model for how remote villages in developing island nations can enter a global market in a manner that can yield a win-win scenario. Like any system, the qoliqoli system can be (and has been) abused, but when it works, it's really something worth looking at, I think.
A really impressive catch of marine aquarium fishes was brought in by Burly, one of the Phillippini divers who works for Walt Smith International, and a few other guys. They said they saw two water spouts, while out collecting, which reminds me that we have had pretty intense storms most afternoons.Today was by far the most rain, however. Quite impressive!
After a delicious dinner with the Turniers, I headed back to Walt's and Deb's house to catch up on a little work and reading before bed, which, I hope, will be imminent.
Signing off from Fiji...Goodnight!
I had an excellent day yesterday. I spent the majority of it at Walt Smith International, where I got to know a few of the divers a bit better and watch them bring in their catch. I also feel very fortunate that a number of people with a comprehensive understanding of Fiji's fisheries and, specifically, the marine AQ fishery, have take the time to help me better understand the past, present and future of the fishery here in Fiji. I have had the opportunity to speak to people on both sides of the trade--those who are working to insure it is robust and sustainable and those who think it needs to be severely curtailed (if not banned altogether).
In addition to interviews, I enjoyed getting to know a few of the coral collectors a bit better today. Here are a few shots I snapped of them as they were moving the corals collected into the raceways at Walt Smith International.
Beautiful sunrise from First Landing, where I am fortunate to have been given a beachfront bure, which includes FREE BREAKFAST! The Resort faces west, but the light was pretty remarkable. For a brief moment, I considered what it might be like to set-up camp in the hammock in front of my bure for the day...
Chris is coming to pick me up so I can head back to Walt Smith International and interview some divers today. I also have been lining up a series of interviews with a range of people familiar with the trade here in Fiji. These are going to be busy days.
I did have a fascinating "off-the-record" interview with a guy from Fisheries Division today. It was off-the-record, so I will leave it out of the blog for now, but suffice it to say that the issues, as expected, are complex. More to come on this for sure, but I need to hop on the phone for an interview in a few minutes, and I still have preparation to do.
When one travels a lot, one learns to go with the flow and to be flexible. So when a luggage snafu resulted in me not being an Air Pacific flight bound for Honiara, Solomon Islands with Dave Palmer, John Carberry and Matthew Carberry (Matthew, president of Sustainable Aquatics, was meeting us in Nadi for the next leg of the trip). At any rate, here I am in Fiji. I'm spending tonight and tomorrow night at First Landing, the resort where I had dined previously with John, Dave, Chris, Kristine, and their two AWESOME kids.
I'm actually please to be "stuck" in Fiji, as I was feeling pretty stressed that I hadn't really gotten the four story on the trade here. The next flight to Solomons is next Tuesday, so I have a week to now research the Fiji story right. Time to get cracking...
Tomorrow we are off to Solomon Islands! I'm excited, but I'm feeling like I have not had nearly enough time in Fiji. I've also neglected blogging about so much of what I have done here, as the days have been super busy.
Okay, for those of you who are non-fishes people, you may be interested in this. I learned today that Lautoka got its name as a result of two chiefs fighting (I'm thinking of the etymology of Crowheart Butte in Wyoming, but I digress..). Apparently, Lautoka translates roughly as "hit by a spear", and it was what one of the chiefs said upon being struck by the others spear. Hmmmmmm.
Lautoka is an important port for Fiji today. It is known as "sugar city," and there is a large sugar mill here. It is a colonial city (although don't expect to be overwhelmed with its colonial architecture!), and its history is intertwined with sugar cane. Allow me to take a moment here to interject that it's a crying shame that an island with this much sugar cane fails to have a respectable rum. I've tried Bounty. No bueno, in my humble opinion!
Today Lautoka has a population of just over 52,000, and while the market is interesting and The Waterfront serves a decent breakfast (and even better coffee!), there probably is not a whole lot of reason for a tourist to come here. Having said that, First Landing is a resort just south of Lautoka, which is a real gem. We had dinner there the other night, and I was told it was the place where, according to local legend, the first Fijians arrived c. 1500 B.C.E. Kinda cool, no?
This coastline may be most familiar to many readers because of a famous incident involving a ship known as the H.M.S. Bounty. In May of 1769, Captain Bligh, after the mutiny on the Bounty, was the first known European to set eyes on this part of Fiji as he was fighting for his life and the lives of a few loyal sailors who has been put adrift by the mutineers.
We had dinner at the yacht club tonight (no delusions of grandeur please, but a tasty meal a killer sunset), and then back to Walt's & Deb's for bed.
Stayed up most of the night observing a shipment being packed at Walt Smith International. Pretty efficient and loads of fun. 'Nuff said. Dave, John and I are off to breakfast.
I am set-up in Walt's office at a conference table beside a large aquarium. Dave and John are discussing an order for Sustainable Aquatics, and I'm setting up interviews and catching up on some blogging. I mentioned earlier that I would return to John's and Dave's bios, and now seems as good a time as any.
John Carberry is the chairman of Sustainable Aquatics. He founded and funded the business, and I first met him at Reefapalozza in Orange County, California last fall. James Lawrence, my editor at Coral Magazine, had suggested I research and write an article on Sustainable Aquatics. At first my interest in the article was, admittedly, not high, as captive breeding and hatchery science, while fascinating to me personally, are generally beyond my area of expertise.
But then I learned about Sustainable Islands.
Sustainable Islands is a division of Sustainable Aquatics, where wild-caught post-larval and very small juvenile fishes are collected from places like the Solomon Islands and then tank-raised at Sustainable Aquatics' Tennessee facility for a period of months (up to one year) before entering the retail market. I covered the Sustainable Islands model in a recent article in Coral Magazine, which I encourage you to read if you are so inclined.
So why is John Carberry here in Fiji with me? Actually, it would be more accurate to ask why I am in Fiji with John, but the bottom line is that John is here because he and Dave Palmer of Pacific Aqua Farms and Aquarium Arts have teamed up so to speak, and I'm a journalist hitching a ride to document their story. Dave sits on the Sustainable Aquatics board, and as I mentioned in my Coral Magazine article, Dave has been instrumental in shaping the Sustainable Islands division of Sustainable Aquatics.
“Dave was the one who emphasized the importance of having wild-caught fishes be part of our business model,” John told me an interview back in January. Why is it important? Because, as both John and Dave have said to me on numerous occasions, supporting sustainable wild collection brings important socioeconomic development to developing island nations.
So John is here with Dave to continue to collaborate (particularly in Solomon Islands) on sustainable models for the marine aquarium trade ranging from mariculture to post-larval collection. If all that doesn't make sense, hopefully it will become clearer in later posts. In Fiji, John hopes to find a source for more post-larval and small juvenile fishes, which he would acquire from Walt Smith International through Pacific Aqua Farms.
Off to take some photographs...
I'm finally tired and ready for bed, but I wanted to mention the wonderful meal John, Dave and I had with Chris and his wife Kristine. While it was all good, the homemade passion fruit gelato and cake was the perfect ending to a first day in Fiji. Thanks, Kristine!
I also should mention that Dave, John and I blitzed down to Denarau, a resort complex complete with golf courses, canals, yachts, and five-star accommodation built on reclaimed mangrove mudflats (yes, they hacked the mangroves to build all that). We had a very pleasant meal at the Sheraton and then returned to Lautoka. Interesting to see, and I suppose it supplied important jobs, but I can't help but think it was a catastrophic environmental move.
We landed at the international airport in Nadi before sunrise. Greeted by a riot of bird song in the pre-dawn darkness, we made our way into the terminal, where we cleared customs without a hitch. Unfortunately one of John's bags went missing en route, but they said it should come in on Monday.
From the airport, we headed to a little resort adjacent to the airport called Tokatoka Resort Hotel for breakfast. I had fish and potatoes and coffee, which hit the spot, and we were off to Walt Smith International. Walt Smith International is one of five (I believe it's five) marine aquarium operators on Fiji at present, and it is the largest. The Walt Smith International facility is just south of Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city (behind the capital, Suva). It takes about half an hour on less than stellar roads (Dave says they are the worst he has ever seen them) to reach the facility, which is situated adjacent to a lumber mill (beautiful mahagony!) with direct access to the water.
The Walt Smith International facility is not so unlike other marine aquarium facilities in developing island nations. Raceways for coral, acrylic holding tanks for fishes and all the infrastructure to support aquarium life between the time it arrives in the facility and is exported (on average between 48 and 72 hours for coral and anywhere from three to five days for fishes depending on the species). One thing that does set Walt Smith International apart is the space dedicated to live rock and cultured live rock. This is a big part of the operation, and it is readily apparent to anyone who visits.
According to research I did before leaving the States, the facility itself is 18,500 square feet in size and is situated on about an acre and half, providing outdoor space for rock culture work. Again, according to research done before leaving for Fiji, the fish holding system is comprised of 2,000 cubes, 14 tanks of 300 gallons and 30 tanks of 40 gallons. The systems rely on substantial biological filtration augmented by RK2 skimmers and chillers. The staff performs, I am told, 30% water change weekly on the fish systems and up to 50% on some of the coral systems.
For the fish and coral systems, water is collected from four to five kilometers offshore (up to seven) in a small barge and brought directly to the facility. For the live rock systems, water is collected from closer to shore (maybe one or two kilometers). The water is filtered and UV sterilized before being pumped into insulated storage chambers where it is chilled before entering the systems holding the animals.
The live rock system, I am told, can hold 19 tons of rock, and it's set-up to house the rock under continuous spray. Before the rock enters the systems, the protocol is that it is scrubbed to remove sediment and seaweed. This live rock, I am told, is collected most frequently from rubble zones adjacent to reef structure. The rubble zones are a natural byproduct of storms and the like. The live rock systems in the warehouse are designed so that the rock is elevated off the bottom of the tank. This is so bycatch can be collected and returned to the sea, in a process intended to clean the rock of much of the living matter that might otherwise die during shipment and compromise the quality of the rock. The living matter that remains, like crustose coralline algae, is what the aquarists wants when setting up a new system. Walt Smith International prides itself on shipping live rock with more than 60% coralline coverage.
In addition to the live rock systems and the animal systems, there are two full pack-out areas for preparing animals for shipping (one for fishes and one for coral). Live rock packing is done in an area adjacent to the live rock systems, where pieces of live rock are packed in special waxed boxes.
Chris Turnier, who manages the warehouse and the divers when Walt Smith is away (Walt is, unfortunately in the States now), gave us a brief tour.
Of course no visit to Fiji would complete without the requisite kava, and out it came at the facility. Cheers!
Okay, it's getting kind of late and Chris Turnier is coming over with his wife for dinner. I'll cover the outdoor space of Walt Smith International in a later post. Before I go, I'd like to toss out a quick thank you to Walt and Deb Smith who have graciously offered their home to us while we are in Fiji. From the hill above Lautoka, their house commands a sweeping view of sea peppered with islands--quite a retreat for three travel-weary Americans.
A harried day of last minute errands, writing assignments and chores at home was made all the more pleasant by near 80-degree weather and abundant sunshine. It almost makes me feel bad about leaving when it's so beautiful here...
...but I am headed back to the South Pacific after all. Anyway, it's time to put all the gear into bags and leave for the airport in a couple hours. Enjoying a last rum and tonic on the patio with my beautiful wife, artist Karen Talbot, and our two very intrepid cats, Didion and Moby.
Tonight I plan to depart LAX at 22.30 hrs for Fiji. We will cross the dateline, and some 10+ hours later, we will arrive in Fiji at 5-something in the morning. We? Yes, we. I am traveling on this trip with Dave Palmer of Pacific Aqua Farms and Aquarium Arts, as well as John Carberry of Sustainable Aquatics. If you don't know these guys, I will introduce them to you in my next post, but they have both been interview subjects for articles I have penned.
Next stop Fiji!
