Sea Cucumber ID cards help sustainable reef management in Fiji
Waitabu Marine Park, in the Vanua Bouma of Taveuni Island, is one of the
original community-based marine managed areas in Fiji. Started in
1998, Waitabu’s no-take, or “Tabu Vakdua” area, was one of the
founder members of the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Areas (FLMMA)network in 2001.
Protected
for 15 years, the Tabu Vakadua area is now rich in fish, coral and
invertebrate life, and the community has recently started a new
project; a temporary closure known as a “Tabu Tara”.
The
concept of the Tabu Tara is to close an area of reef neighbouring the
long-term Tabu Vakadua, allow marine life to increase in the newly
closed area, and then to open it for short term specific harvests.
In
this way it is hoped to create a form of sustainable “farming” of
marine resources, with regular cropping.
Sea Cucumbers
SeaCucumbers have been a trade item in Fiji for 200 years.
Unfortunately, in recent times, advancing technology such as SCUBA
and Hookah underwater breathing equipment has allowed fishers to go
deeper and collect for longer than in the past, resulting in many
reefs being completely stripped of these important reef cleaners.
Without Sea Cucumbers to eat rotting plant and animal material, the
sea bed soon becomes covered in dirt and detritus, and corals
eventually become unhealthy and die.
When corals are in poor health,
all life on the reef suffers.
Waitabu’s Tabu Tara
In
Waitabu’s Tabu Tara, the community has started to count and study
their Sea Cucumber populations, so that a sustainable harvest can be
decided upon, which will eventually allow them to regularly take a
certain amount of cucumbers, while enough are left to breed and
re-stock the reef
If
this is to work, it is important for community member to understand
Sea Cucumber biology and lifecycles, so that they can make informed
decisions about harvesting frequency and size.
2013 Training Sessions
During the recent
annual Tabu area surveys between 11 and 16 February 2013, a training
session on Sea Cucumbers was held.
Participants
from four of the Vanua Bouma communities; Waitabu, Wai, Korovou and
Lavena, learned about the lifecycle of Sea Cucumbers in general from
information sheets complied by the Locally Managed Marine Areas(LMMA) network, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC),
and to identify specific species using a set of waterproof cards
provided by SPC.
By Helen
Sykes
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