Traditional institutions and their role in the contemporary coastal resource management in the Pacific Islands

A discussion is presented on the role played by customary marine tenure (CMT) institutions in the regulation of fisheries in the Pacific Ocean Islands. Particular reference is made to the system in operation in Marovo Lagoon, in the Solomon Islands, whereby a number of defined clans control resource use within defined areas of land and sea. It is believed that such systems have considerable capacity for handling and adapting to new circumstances, thereby becoming potentially important tools in the contemporary management of fisheries and of the coastal zone in general.

Village fisheries management and community-owned marine protected areas in Samoa

As in many tropical countries, subsistence fishers in Samoa live in discrete communities which have a high level of marine knowledge and some degree of control of adjacent waters. These factors provide an ideal basis for motivating communities to manage their marine resources. In Samoa, a community-based fisheries extension program encouraged each village community to define its key problems, discuss causes, propose solutions and take appropriate actions. Various village groups provided information which was recorded as problem/solution trees. The extension process culminated in a Village-Fisheries Management Plan which listed the resource management and conservation undertakings of the community. Undertakings range from enforcing laws banning destructive fishing methods to protecting critical marine habitats. Within the first eighteen months, the extension process commenced in 57 villages of which 40 have produced Village Fisheries Management Plans. An unexpectedly large number (32) or these villages chose to establish Marine Protected Areas, the first community-owned marin reserves in the country.

Fisheries management: what chance on coral reefs?

Failures of fishery management to control fishing effort globally and how this affects the coral reef fisheries are discussed. The use of marine reserves in coral reef fisheries management is also emphasized.

Economics and management strategies for restocking sandfish in Vietnam

This paper assesses the costs and benefits of a proposed project for restocking sandfish (Holothuria scabra) in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. It identifies the key stakeholders, institutional framework, management and financing required for its implementation. The recommended management strategy includes a 50 percent harvest at optimum size. Limiting the number of boats fishing an area, possibly through licensing, can control the number of sandfish removed. The easiest way to prevent harvesting of undersized sandfish is to control the size of processed sandfish from processors. The potential benefits of restocking are shown by the rapid changes in selected indicators, particularly the net present value, the internal rate of return, and the benefit-cost ratio. Probability analysis is used to estimate the uncertainties in the project calculations. Based on a conservative estimate, the restocking of sandfish is expected to be profitable, although cost-benefit analyses are sensitive to the survival of restocked sandfish and their progeny, and the number of boats fishing for sandfish in the release area.

Impact of the introduction of apple snails and their control in Japan

The apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata, was imported into Japan and cultured extensively for food in the early 1980s. Not long after, escaped or discarded snails became feral and started feeding on rice seedlings and other aquatic plants. This was especially noted in Kyushu in southern Japan. Snails are still proliferating, but the area of damaged rice is not increasing as fast, mainly because of the success of snail control. Currently, the most effective methods of avoiding damage to rice are keeping water shallow, transplanting older seedlings and, in some cases, using molluscicides or repellents. However, these methods have almost no effect on damage by snail feeding when rice fields are flooded. The apple snail is believed to be the most important obstacle to the spread of direct-sowing culture of rice in Kyushu. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has launched a national project for the integrated management of the snail under direct sowing culture of rice in Kyushu. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has launched a national project for the integrated management of the snail under direct-sowing rice culture. Some recent results from this project are briefly reviewed in this paper.

Collaborative Pacific Halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, Bycatch Control by Canada and the United States

ABSTRACT—Bycatch mortality of Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, in nontarget fisheries is composed primarily of immature fish, and substantial reductions in yield to directed halibut fisheries result from this bycatch. Distant-water bottomtrawl fleets operating off the North American coast, beginning in the mid 1960’s, experienced bycatch mortality of over 12,000 t annually. Substantial progress on reducing this bycatch was not achieved until the of extension fisheries jurisdictions by the United States and Canada in 1977. Bycatch began to increase again during the expansion of domestic catching capacity for groundfish, and by the early 1990’s it had returned to levels seen during the period of foreign fishing. Collaborative action by Canada and the United States through the International Pacific Halibut Commission has resulted in substantial reductions in bycatch mortality in some areas. Methods of control have operated at global, fleet, and individual vessel levels. We evaluate the hierarchy of effectiveness for these control measures and identify regulatory needs for optimum effects. New monitoring technologies offer the promise of more cost-effective approaches to bycatch reduction.

Harmful algal blooms in coastal waters: options for prevention, control and mitigation

This report is the product of a panel of experts in the science of blooms of unicellular marine algae which can cause mass mortalities in a variety of marine organisms and cause illness and even death in humans who consume contaminated seafood. These phenomena are collectively termed harmful algal blooms or HABs for short. As a counterpart to recent assessments of the priorities for scientific research to understand the causes and behavior of HABs, this assessment addressed the management options for reducing their incidence and extent (prevention), actions that can quell or contain blooms (control), and steps to reduce the losses of resources or economic values and minimize human health risks (mitigation). This assessment is limited to an appraisal of scientific understanding, but also reflects consideration of information and perspectives provided by regional experts, agency managers and user constituencies during three regional meetings. The panel convened these meetings during the latter half of 1996 to solicit information and opinions from scientific experts, agency managers and user constituencies in Texas, Washington, and Florida. The panel's assessment limited its attention to those HABs that result in neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, paralytic shellfish poisoning, brown tides, amnesic shellfish poisoning, and aquaculture fish kills. This covers most, but certainly not all, HAB problems in the U.S.

Ciguatera Fish Poisoning: treatment, prevention and management

Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP) is the most frequently reported seafood-toxin illness in the world, and it causes substantial physical and functional impact. It produces a myriad of gastrointestinal, neurologic and/or cardiovascular symptoms which last days to weeks, or even months. Although there are reports of symptom amelioration with some interventions (e.g. IV mannitol), the appropriate treatment for CFP remains unclear to many physicians. We review the literature on the treatments for CFP, including randomized controlled studies and anecdotal reports. The article is intended to clarify treatment options, and provide information about management and prevention of CFP, for emergency room physicians, poison control information providers, other health care providers, and patients.

Harmful algal bloom management and response: assessment and plan

This report, "Harmful Algal Bloom Management and Response: Assessment and Plan" reviews and evaluates Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) management and response efforts, identifies current prevention, control, and mitigation programs for HABs, and presents an innovative research, event response, and infrastructure development plan for advancing the response to HABs. In December 2004, Congress enacted and the President signed into law the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Amendments Act of 2004, (HABHRCA 2004). The reauthorization of HABHRCA acknowledged that HABs are one of the most scientifically complex and economically damaging coastal issues challenging our ability to safeguard the health of our Nation’s coastal ecosystems. The Administration further recognized the importance of HABs as a high priority national issue by specifically calling for the implementation of HABHRCA in the President’s U.S. Ocean Action Plan. HABHRCA 2004 requires four reports to assess and recommend research programs on HABs in U.S. waters. This document comprises two linked reports specifically aimed at improving HAB management and response: the Prediction and Response Report and the follow-up plan, the National Scientific Research, Development, Demonstration, and Technology Transfer (RDDTT) Plan on Reducing Impacts from Harmful Algal Blooms. This document was prepared by the Interagency Working Group on Harmful Algal Blooms, Hypoxia, and Human Health, which was chartered through the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology of the National Science and Technology Council and the Interagency Committee on Ocean Science and Resource Management Integration. This report complements and expands upon HAB-related priorities identified in Charting the Course for Ocean Science in the United States for the Next Decade: An Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy, recently released by the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology. It draws from the contributions of numerous experts and stakeholders from federal, state, and local governments, academia, industry, and non-governmental organizations through direct contributions, previous reports and planning efforts, a public comment period, and a workshop convened to develop strategies for a HAB management and response plan. Given the importance of the Nation’s coastal ocean, estuaries, and inland waters to our quality of life, our culture, and the economy, it is imperative that we move forward to better understand and mitigate the impacts of HABs which threaten all of our coasts and inland waters. This report is an effort to assess the extent of federal, state and local efforts to predict and respond to HAB events and to identify opportunities for charting a way forward.

Status of water hyacinth infestation and control in River Kagera

During a regional workshop held in Mukono, Uganda (May 2001) by scientists and technocrats from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, working on water hyacinth management under the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP), it was resolved that a survey of River Kagera be made to study the status of water hyacinth infestation and biological control in the river. Reports at the Mukono Workshop indicated that although Tanzania and Uganda had made serious effort to introduced biological control weevils (Neochefina eichhorniae and Neochetina brucht) on the weed in River Kagera, the level of establishment of biological control in the river was doubtful. Large quantities of water hyacinth biomass drifted down River Kagera into Lake Victoria daily. Similar reports of apparent inability of biological control weevils to fully establish and have effect on water hyacinth in River Nile, especially the Upper Victoria Nile, were also made by Uganda, and large quantities of weed biomass continuously drifted down the Upper Victoria Nile into Lake Kyoga. This was in spite of the successful control of the weed in Lake Victoria between 1998 and 2000

Data structures and software tools for the computer aided design of control systems: a survey.

CAD software can be structured as a set of modular 'software tools' only if there is some agreement on the data structures which are to be passed between tools. Beyond this basic requirement, it is desirable to give the agreed structures the status of 'data types' in the language used for interactive design. The ultimate refinement is to have a data management capability which 'understands' how to manipulate such data types. In this paper the requirements of CACSD are formulated from the point of view of Database Management Systems. Progress towards meeting these requirements in both the DBMS and the CACSD community is reviewed. The conclusion reached is that there has been considerable movement towards the realisation of software tools for CACSD, but that this owes more to modern ideas about programming languages, than to DBMS developments. The DBMS field has identified some useful concepts, but further significant progress is expected to come from the exploitation of concepts such as object-oriented programming, logic programming, or functional programming.

Identification of causes of Thai pangas mortality in ponds and their control strategies

Mass mortality of Thai pangas (Pangasius hypophthalmus) is reported to be a big threat to monoculture of the species in Bangladesh. Twenty affected and twenty control Thai pangas ponds were investigated around Mymensingh district in order to identify the causes of pangas mortality. Sixty affected and sixty unaffected fish samples were examined and compared to find the fish-level variables associated with the disease. A range of haemorrhagic signs on snout, skin and fins were recorded during examination with naked eyes. Aeromonas spp. and Edwardsiella spp. were isolated from 87% and 80% of the affected fish, respectively. Even 4% of the seemingly healthy fish carried Aeromonas spp. on their skin. Among the four water quality parameters monitored, remarkably higher total ammonia (1.5 ppm) was found in water of the affected ponds compared to that of the unaffected ones (0.4 ppm). High ammonia in affected water caused by excessive organic decomposition and poor pond management might have reduced the immunity of fish, which predisposed them for bacterial invasion and consequent disease outbreak.