Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work: Conference Proceedings, Page 68
THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN
DEPLETING A LIMITED RESOURCE – A CASE
STUDY OF THE BUMPHEAD PARROTFISH
(BOLBOMETOPON MURICATUM) ARTISANAL
FISHERY IN ROVIANA LAGOON, WESTERN
PROVINCE, SOLOMON ISLANDS.
RICHARD J. HAMILTON
University of Otago
C/o P.O. Box 132, Munda, Western Province
Solomon Islands
Email: rickdoryhamilton@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
This study highlights the way in which new
technological and economic inputs into
indigenous artisanal exploitation systems can
have negative ecological effects on a fishery, and
the fact that traditional ecological knowledge is
not always used sustainably. The fishers of
Roviana Lagoon (Western Province, Solomon
Islands) fished Bumphead Parrotfish (B.
muricatum or topa in the Roviana language) for
generations, using a targeting strategy based on
precise knowledge of its aggregating behaviour
built up over centuries. During certain moon
phases at specific shallow water sites where the
fish aggregated to sleep at night, fishermen
speared them from dugout canoes by the light of
dried burning coconut leaves. Catch rates were
well below the maximum sustainable yield.
When the underwater flashlight became widely
available in Roviana Lagoon, however, this
traditional fishing method was quickly replaced
by night-time spear fishing using goggles and a
steel hand-held spear. With this method, fishers
could easily take four to five times as many topa
as before. In the late 1980's, new pressures were
placed on the topa stocks when local markets
developed, ironically under the umbrella of NGO
sustainable development projects.
Today
artisanal spear fishers use their sophisticated
indigenous knowledge of topa behaviour and
ecology to move from one known aggregation
site to another, spearing as many topa as
possible in a night. A Catch-Per-Unit-Effort
(CPUE) survey of night-time spear fishing trips
in Roviana Lagoon reveals that this resource is
heavily overfished, with the majority of topa
caught today being juveniles. Extensive
interviewing with past and current spear fisher’s
reveals that this modern fishing method has
caused major declines in topa numbers. The
introduction of simple but new technologies
coupled with small scale economic restructuring
has thus thrown the system out of equilibrium.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of a traditional marine conservation
ethic existing among indigenous coastal people
(Hviding 1996, Ruddle et al. 1992) is one that
has been losing favor in recent years. An
increasing
amount
of
anthropological,
archaeological and marine biology literature
suggests that subsistence fishing communities
are also implicated in the problems of
environmental degradation and resource
depletion (Foale and Day 1997, Jackson 1997,
Aswani 1998, Foale 1998, Jackson et al. 2001,
Wing and Wing 2001). In some ways this was to
be expected, as the original romantic
assumptions that all indigenous people had an
intrinsic conservation ethic that allowed their
societies to remain “in balance” with nature, is a
naïve and somewhat patronizing oversimplification of indigenous life ways.
There is however, a real danger in lumping all
subsistence fisheries back into the unsustainable
basket. If we do this, fisheries biologists and
managers, who are often pessimists by nature,
may overlook many of the potential management
values of Customary Marine Tenure (CMT) and
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) systems
that are a common component of many coastal
subsistence communities (Johannes 1988, Foster
and Poggie 1993, Hviding 1991, Johannes et al.
1993, Lalonde and Akhtar 1994 and Christie and
White 1997). It would also be an over simplistic
response to an extremely complicated situation.
In the last 50 years globalization has brought
new technologies and new markets to virtually
every remote society on earth (Suzuki and
Dressel 1999). This, coupled with an exploding
global population has put unprecedented
pressure on all the world’s resources. It is little
wonder then, that small-scale indigenous
fisheries have also began to show signs of
ecological stress.
In this case study, I focus on the Bumphead
parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) fishery in
Roviana Lagoon, Western Province, Solomon
Islands. An overview of this species biology and
global conservation status is given, and an
historical overview of the topa fishery in this
region is provided.
Particular attention is
brought to highly detailed and elaborate body of
TEK of topa that is contained within Roviana
spearfishing communities, and the way in which
this TEK is used by Roviana spearfishermen to
capture nocturnal aggregations of topa. The
current status of the Roviana topa fishery is
assessed using a combination of ethnographic
and scientific data. The issue of whether or not
Roviana
fishers
possess
a
traditional
Page 69, Hamilton: Depletion of the Bumphead Parrotfish Fishery, Solomon Islands
conservation ethic and use TEK to ensure
sustainability is addressed.
Environmental background
The Solomon islands are a double-chained
archipelago lying east of Papua New Guinea that
extend over 1,400 kilometers across the South
West Pacific (Figure 1). The islands display
remarkable diversity in both terrestrial and
marine environments.
The Solomon Island archipelago comprises 0ver
900 islands, mostly volcanic in origin. Extensive
lagoon systems occur in the Western Province.
The population of the Solomon Islands is
approximately 400,000, the vast majority live in
rural villages, with their livelihood depending on
subsistence production.
Roviana Lagoon where I was based, consists of a
string of raised coral islands stretching for
approximately 40km down the southwest coast
of New Georgia Island. Between the outer
islands and the mainland of New Georgia lies a
shallow coastal lagoon of approximately two to
three kilometers width (Sheppard et al. 2000).
The lagoon system supports a high degree of
biodiversity, through a wide range of habitats,
such as: mangroves, coral atolls, barrier reefs,
passages, marine lakes and sea grass beds.
Scattered throughout the lagoon are a dozen
small subsistence villages, whose inhabitants
rely on the lagoon resources as a means of
survival. The town of Munda is located at the
western end of Roviana Lagoon, and is the only
developed area in this region.
Topa (B. muricatum)
The topa, Bolbometopon muricatum, is the
largest of all parrotfish, reaching over 50
kilograms and living to an age of at least 40. It is
an herbivorous fish that feeds on corals. It forms
mixed sized schools during the day and is
extremely vulnerable to overfishing. Recent
work by Dulvy and Polunin on this species’
abundance in the Lau Islands in Fiji suggests
that “the Bumphead parrotfish is highly
vulnerable to exploitation and already extinct at
some locations” (Dulvy and Polunin in revision).
Figure 1. The Solomon Islands Nation.
The New Georgia Group, in the Western
Province, is made up of 9 main islands that
extend for approximately 270 kilometers. The
largest island, New Georgia, is fringed by
Roviana Lagoon to the southwest and Marovo
lagoon to the northeast. The majority of this
research was conducted in Roviana Lagoon, and
studies were also carried out at the uninhabited
island of Tetapare (Figure 2). The reason I
focused on these two areas is that they provide
an interesting insight into the ecological impacts
of human subsistence and artisanal fishing
systems. Roviana Lagoon represents a heavily
fished area, while the uninhabited island of
Tetapare represents a lightly fished area.
Dulvy and Polunin attribute these local
extinctions in the Lau group to overfishing by
nighttime spearfishers, and reports that; “some
young fishers (<25yr) had never seen an
individual of this species and the last recorded
captures varied from the 1980s to as long ago as
the 1960s” (Dulvy and Polunin in revision).
Topa is a highly prized food fish in Roviana
Lagoon, and this is reflected both through the
detailed ecological knowledge base of this
species and the existing folk taxonomy for this
fish. In the Roviana language, the Bumphead
parrotfish is referred to as lendeke, kitakita, topa
and topa kakara, where each respective name
refers to an increasing size range of this fish.
Traditional ecological knowledge of topa
Previous research in the Roviana region has
shown that TEK contained within Roviana
Customary Marine Tenure systems is extremely
detailed and precise (Aswani 1997, Hamilton
1999). The TEK of Roviana communities is
directed towards identifying environmental and
behavioral patterns that maximize capture
success.
Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work: Conference Proceedings, Page 70
Figure 2. The New Georgia Group, with Roviana Lagoon to the North of Rendova Island, and Tetapare Island to the
South East of Rendova Island.
Such knowledge requires an understanding of
the influence that daily tides, tidal seasons, lunar
stage and annual seasonality have on fish
behaviour. This TEK is built up over generations
and is cemented in Roviana culture through folk
taxonomy, folklore and local place names.
Roviana fishers draw upon this body of
knowledge to decide when and where they will
focus their fishing efforts (Aswani 1997,
Hamilton and Walter1999, Johannes et al.
2000).
The indigenous knowledge on the
behaviour and ecology of topa is one such
example. It includes knowledge on; diet, feeding
times, schooling behaviour, juvenile nursery
areas, spawning, the influence of the lunar stage
on nocturnal behaviour, predation by sharks,
nocturnal aggregations, individual color changes
at night, spatial and temporal distributions,
population changes over time and fleeing
behaviour. A full description of Roviana TEK of
topa is beyond the scope of this paper, but three
aspects of this knowledge need mention, as they
relate directly to the nighttime capture of this
fish.
The most pivotal component of this knowledge,
is the recognition that topa, which are a wary fish
that are almost impossible to approach during
the day, are easily approachable at night, when
they are asleep up against coral structures. It is
also well known that the spatial distribution of
sleeping topa is not random. Topa fishermen
understand that there are specific sleeping zones
such as sheltered bays and certain passage areas
where topa sleep.
Secondly, the lunar cycle is recognised as playing
a very important role in topa behaviour. As in
many parts of the Pacific, Roviana inhabitants
have a traditional lunar calendar and many
predictable fish behaviours are pinpointed using
this (Aswani 1997, Hamilton 1999). Roviana
fishermen know that several days immediately
following new moon, and once the new moon
had set, topa will be fast asleep up against coral,
and thus easily approached and speared.
Roviana fishermen also understand that if the
moon is up, topa will not sleep properly. Instead
they will be moving slowly about and are easily
disturbed.
Finally, it is well known that topa do not
normally sleep in solitude, but rather, a group of
topa will sleep in the same small area. Roviana
fishermen knew that the largest nighttime
aggregations occurred during the new moon
period, and that it is at this time that many of the
topa sleep in very shallow water.
Traditional fishing methods
The traditional method of fishing for topa,
hopere pana bongi, took place during tada
sindara, the new moon period. Fishermen would
paddle a wooden canoe to a shallow reef area
where topa where known to aggregate to sleep.
Once reaching their destination, fishermen
would light one of many plaited dried coconut
fronds that they had previously made and stored
in the bottom of the canoe, and use the light to
search for topa (Figure 3). This method needed
at least two fishermen, one at the front of the
canoe to hold the hand spear and burning
coconut fronds and search for topa, while the
Page 71, Hamilton: Depletion of the Bumphead Parrotfish Fishery, Solomon Islands
fishermen at the rear of the canoe would paddle.
Once a sleeping topa was seen, the paddler
would position the canoe above the sleeping topa
and the fisherman at the front of the canoe
would throw his spear at the topa, attempting to
strike it in the head.
the heavy machinery and ammunition was left
behind or dumped in the sea. As well as leaving
behind bombs and barges, the Americans also
discarded large amounts of diesel. Hopere pana
bongi fishermen quickly saw the potential of this
diesel as a source of light, and discarded burning
coconut fronds in favour of a piece of reinforcing
steel that had an old copra sack wrapped around
one end of it. Fishermen would soak the copra
sack in diesel, and then set the diesel alight.
Flames from the burning diesel were used as a
light source to search for sleeping topa.
Fishing methods similar to this continued to be
used up until 1970, when electric flashlights
became readily available. These were not
waterproof, but fishers found it easier to simply
stand in the canoe with a flashlight and a spear,
and search for topa in this manner.
Figure 3. The traditional method of fishing for topa.
This fishing method, which had been used
explicitly for capturing topa for generations,
harvested topa well below the maximum
sustainable yield. Evidence of this is apparent
from the fact that this fishing method stayed
culturally stable over time and that the same
aggregation sites were continually fished with no
noticeable effect. One of the old topa fishermen
that I interviewed said to me:
“In the old days, when we used
traditional methods, no matter how
many years we fished in the same
places, there was always an
abundance of topa there”
(pers. comm., Ezara, Nusabanga village,
December 2000. Translated from Solomon
island Pidgin by the author). Of six older topa
fishermen interviewed, all agreed that this
method would capture less than ten topa in a
night.
Changes in technology and markets
The first changes to this traditional method
occurred following World War II. The Second
World War left a big impact on Roviana Lagoon,
with thousands of American soldiers and their
war machines moving in and developing the area
as an air force base in their fight for control over
the South Pacific. When the war ended, most of
The means for over-exploitation arrived with the
introduction of underwater flashlights to
Roviana Lagoon in the mid 1970s. Nighttime
spearfishing quickly took off. Fishers interviewed
reported discovering they could easily spear 5070 topa a night around the new moon period
with just a handheld spear, a pair of goggles and
an underwater flashlight. The huge catches
produced by this method effectively spelled the
end of the traditional method of spearing topa at
night from a canoe.
It is important to note that from the mid 1970sright up until the end of the 1980s there were no
cash markets for topa, so although a spearfishing
party could take 50-70 topa in a night they rarely
did, as this was far more fish than the village
could possibly eat. Large catches of 50-70 topa
where normally only ever made for special
occasions such as weddings and funerals.
The slow but steady move of rural Solomon
island communities towards a cash based
society, and the provinces’ desires for greater
financial development, saw the opening up of a
small, EEC-funded community based fishing
centre in Munda in 1988.
Although this
development failed after several years due to
financial problems, it set the way for numerous
future fisheries projects in Munda and Roviana
Lagoon. Pressure on stocks increased as tops
became the most sought after fish in Munda. By
the mid 1990’s, topa fillets were being bought at
a higher price than any other fish.
Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work: Conference Proceedings, Page 72
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Size of female maturity in topa
Ethnographic data
To determine the size of female maturity, female
gonad weight in grams was plotted against fork
length for 169 female topa sampled in this study.
A plot of gonad weight on size reveals an
exponential curve. The point of inflection on this
graph indicates the size at which maturity is
achieved. (Howard Choat, pers. comm.). The
size at maturity is to be checked through
histological analysis.
The field component of the research was carried
out from early August 2000 until late July 2001.
During this period the author resided at
Nusabanga village, where he participated in the
daily life of the village and worked regularly with
the local fishers, to gain as wide an
understanding as possible of the topa fishing
system. Formal interviews were conducted with
21 nighttime spear fishermen from the villages of
Dunde, Nusa Roviana, Nusabanga, Sasavalle,
Baraulu, Bula lavata and Nusahope in Roviana
Lagoon.
These fishermen were selected
according to their recognized status of nighttime
spearfishing experts within their respective
villagers. When possible, the interviewer sought
out older spearfishing experts that had lived in
their respective villages for their entire life and
remained active in nighttime spearfishing over a
long period of time. These older individuals had
some of the richest TEK bases on topa ecology
and most importantly, older fishers were able to
give detailed information on the changes that
have occurred in this fishery over the last 30
years. The interviewer covered a set number of
questions that pertained to the history of the
subsistence topa fishery in Roviana Lagoon,
fishermen’s knowledge of the ecology and
behaviour of this fish and changes in this fishery
over time. All interviews were conducted in
Solomon Island Pidgin. During this research
period the author actively participated in over 50
nighttime spearfishing trips with fishermen from
numerous Roviana villages.
Scientific data
Catch Per Unit Effort survey:
A CPUE survey of Roviana nighttime
spearfishing trips was carried out from August
2000 to July 2001 in order to establish the
importance of topa in the catch and the size
distribution of the topa being captured. 82
nighttime spearfishing trips were recorded in
Roviana Lagoon. Fish speared were sorted to
family level and species level where possible and
weighed to the nearest 10 grams. For all topa
caught in the CPUE survey, fork length and total
weight measurements were recorded, sex was
noted, and gonads were weighed. In most
instances otolith and gonad samples were also
collected. A CPUE survey of nighttime catches
was also carried out at Tetapare Island. The
author recorded catches from four nighttime
spearfishing trips at Tetapare island in 2001.
RESULTS
Ethnographic data
All 21 spearfishermen that the author
interviewed from throughout Roviana Lagoon
reported major declines in topa catches in the
past 10 years. Out of 15 current spearfishermen
interviewed, all reported that the most topa they
had ever caught in one night in the past 2 years
was between 5-16, and that the average number
of topa they caught on a topa spearfishing trip
was around 2-8. This contrasts with the mid
1970s and early 1980s when spearfishermen
sometimes took as many as 70 topa in a night.
Furthermore, all fishermen mentioned a very
marked decline in the abundance of topa kakara,
the large terminal phase males in recent years.
Finally, several of the 15 current spearfishermen
that were interviewed, reported that they have
increased their spearfishing efforts in the inner
lagoon, exclusively targeting juvenile topa that
sleep in these inner lagoon areas. These inner
lagoon areas were rarely fished in the past, and
are being more heavily exploited now due to the
marked drop in catches at traditional outer reef
and passage areas.
Scientific data
Size of female maturity in topa
Female gonad weight (g) was plotted against fork
length (mm) for 169 female topa (Figure 4). It is
clear from Figure 4 that some individuals as
small as 610mm have significant gonad
development, and by 620mm, at least 50% of the
population have gonads of a significant weight.
Thus, the size of maturity for female topa in
Roviana Lagoon can be taken to be 62cm.
Page 73, Hamilton: Depletion of the Bumphead Parrotfish Fishery, Solomon Islands
T a b le 1 . S p e c i e s t h a t m a d e u p 1 % o r
m o r e o f t h e R o v ia n a C P U E s u r v e y .
S p e c ie s
Gonad w eight (g)
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Fork length (mm)
P e rc e n ta g e o f c a tc h
B . m u r ic a t u m
P . a r e o la tu s
N a s o litu r a t u s
A . n ig r ic a u d a
g r e e n t u r t le
P a in te d c r a y fis h
C . u n d u la t u s
h a w k e s b ill tu r t le
A . lin e a tu s
3 6 .6 %
1 0 .9 %
3 .5 %
3 .3 %
2 .6 %
2 .2 %
1 .8 %
1 .5 %
1 .4 %
50
Figure
1. Fork
length
versus
gonad
weight
Female
Figure
4. Fork
length
versus
gonad
weight
forfor
169169
female
topa
topa
45
40
35
25
20
15
10
5
0
105-109
95-99
85-89
75-79
65-69
55-59
45-49
35-39
What is also obvious from Figure 5 is that very
few topa captured in this survey were over
100cm. Only 3% of the catch was made up of
topa 100cm or more, a size range referred to as
topa kakara in the Roviana language.
In
Roviana, the average number of topa shot on a
nighttime spearfishing trip was 2.9. Figure 6
shows a good night’s catch in Roviana Lagoon in
June 2001. This particular fishing trip was
organized to collect fish for a funeral, and it
involved four spearfishermen who were diving
for four hours. Most of the catch is topa and
these topa are almost all juveniles, being
between 50-60cm in length.
30
25-29
The species that made up the most of the catch
by weight was topa, accounting for 36.6 % of the
total catch (Table 1). The size distribution of 239
topa recorded in the Roviana CPUE survey is
shown in Figure 5. The mean size of topa
speared in this survey was 63.2cm. Analysis of
gonad data reveals that the size at which female
topa mature is around 62cm, thus, 56% of all
topa recorded in this survey can be considered
juveniles.
Frequency
Results of CPUE survey in Roviana Lagoon
Size class (cm)
Figure 5. The size distribution of 239 topa
recorded in the Roviana CPUE nighttime survey.
Results of CPUE survey at Tetapare
The species that made up the most of the catch
by weight was topa, accounting for 86% of the
total catch (Table 2). The size distribution of 65
topa recorded in the Tetapare CPUE survey is
shown in Figure 7. The mean size of topa speared
in this survey was 89.5cm. 5% of the Tetapare
catch were juveniles and 35% of the catch were
topa kakara, being 100cm or over. Topa 110cm
or over where recorded at Tetapare 6% of the
time. At Tetapare, the average number of topa
shot on a nighttime spearfishing trip was 16.3.
Figure 8 is a good night’s catch at Tetapare in
April 2001. This particular fishing trip was
Figure 5. A good night’s catch in Roviana Lagoon
organized to collect fish for later sale at Munda
town. The topa shown here were speared by four
spearfishermen over a two hour period. In this
short timeframe, almost 400 kilograms of topa
were collected. This entire topa catch is made up
of mature adult fish.
Table 2. Species that made up 1% or more
of the total catch at Tetapare Island
Species
Percentage of total catch
86
3
1.8
Frequency
B. muricatum
Green turtle
C. undulatus
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
105-109
95-99
85-89
75-79
65-69
55-59
45-49
35-39
25-29
Size class (cm)
Figure 7. The size distribution of 65 topa captured
at Tetapare Island.
Figure 7. A good nights catch at Tetapare Island.
DISCUSSION
The ecological impacts of new technologies and
changing markets on topa populations in
Roviana Lagoon have been profound. Roviana
Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work: Conference Proceedings, Page 74
spearfishermen interviewed in this study
unanimously agree that catch rates have declined
strikingly in the last two decades, and topa
kakara (large terminal phase males) which were
once the dominant component of the night catch,
are rarely captured these days. These changes
have all occurred in only three decades, and
coincide with the introduction of the underwater
flashlight and the commencement of nighttime
spearfishing in Roviana Lagoon.
Scientific
support for these anecdotal claims comes by
comparing the heavily spear fished region of
Roviana Lagoon with the only recently spear
fished island of Tetapare.
In Roviana Lagoon, the mean number of topa
caught on a spearfishing trip was 2.9, the
majority of topa captured were juveniles (56%),
the mean size of all captured fish was 63.2cm,
only 3% of the catch was over 100cm and no topa
in the 110-114cm size class were ever captured.
In comparison, at the lightly fished island of
Tetapare, the mean number of topa caught on a
spearfishing trip was 16.3, only 5% of the catch
were juveniles, the mean size was 89.5cm, 35%
of the catch were topa kakara, being 100cm or
over, and the size class of 110-114 cm was well
represented, making up 6% of the total catch.
Large reductions in CPUE, a high number of
juveniles in the catch, relatively few mature
females and males in the catch and an absence of
the largest size class, are all classical signs of an
overexploited fish stock that is under stress. In
short, all ethnographic and scientific data
collected in this study points overwhelmingly at
a fishery that is in need of management. In this
study it was possible to evaluate the impact of
nighttime spearfishing on Roviana Lagoon by
comparing CPUE data from Roviana Lagoon
with CPUE data from the lightly fished area of
Tetapare. However, there are few places in the
world where such a comparison are still possible.
As more and more remote maritime locations
become exploited, it will become increasingly
important to draw on older fishers oral accounts
as “sources of information on the histories of
their fisheries, often the only link with marine
environments and populations of times past”
(Johannes et al. 2000).
The Roviana and Tetapare data presented in this
paper supports research on topa in Fiji that
shows that the abundance of topa is negatively
related to fishing pressure, and that this is a
species that is highly susceptible to overfishing
(Dulvy and Polunin). Clearly, Roviana fishers
possess a great deal of practical knowledge on
topa, much of which is unknown to science,
Page 75, Hamilton: Depletion of the Bumphead Parrotfish Fishery, Solomon Islands
however this TEK of topa is used in order to
maximize capture rates, and there is no evidence
of a conservation ethic among Roviana spearfishermen.
Although all fishermen interviewed raised
concerns and disappointment over the status of
the topa fishery since the commencement of
nighttime
spearfishing,
many
did
not
comprehend that overfishing could be a reason
for the decline. The few fishermen who did
attribute declines in catches to increased fishing
pressure were among the youngest of the
fishermen interviewed. They also stated that the
financial incentives provided by night diving
outweighed any environmental concerns.
The possibility that globalisation and changing
market demands have suppressed a conservation
ethic that once existed in Roviana fishermen
cannot be ruled out, but I believe the answer is
simply that Roviana people never developed a
conservation ethic for their reef fisheries because
they never needed one. Johannes (1981) defines
a conservation ethic as an awareness that one
can deplete or otherwise damage one’s natural
resources, coupled with a commitment to reduce
or eliminate the problem. He points out that in
the South Pacific, it is in areas where resources
are scarce, and have been for some time, that
conservation ethics and resource controls are
most developed. “Some islanders, however, were
fortunate enough to live in areas where marine
resources greatly exceeded their needs; they
literally could not deplete them. They were thus
unaware that natural limits on the yield of their
marine resources even existed” (Johannes in
press).
Roviana Lagoon inhabitants have always had
access to a large marine resource base as well as
utilising large areas of New Georgia mainland for
shifting horticulture practices.
The current
population of Roviana Lagoon and the nearby
Vonavona Lagoon is 12,235 people (Government
census 1999), with these communities having
access to over 300 square kilometres of reef.
The population numbers in Roviana Lagoon may
have fluctuated considerably in the past (Aswani
pers. comm.).
However, given the limited
efficiency of traditional fishing methods, and the
absence of western markets, it is unlikely that
Roviana fishers ever over-exploited their topa
prior to the commencement of nighttime
spearfishing.
Thus, before the advent of
nighttime spear-fishing, topa stocks appeared
unlimited in the minds of Roviana inhabitants,
and the need to practice conservation measures
never arose.
The situation today in Roviana Lagoon
represents a crossroad between the old and the
new. The good old days when reef fishery
resources were seemingly limitless and
conservation measures was not required, are
being replaced with the modern realities of one
of the highest population growths in the world
and the ecological costs of conforming to ever
encroaching westernization.
There is an
increasing desire among Roviana communities
to exploit marine resources for cash, so that they
can pay their children’s school fees, buy petrol
for their outboard engines and access the wide
range of western consumer goods now available
to them. Interestingly, the scene appears set for
the development and solidification of a
conservation ethic in Roviana culture. In the
case study here presented, the ecological changes
in response to simple new technologies and
market demands have been so dramatic and
negative, that many Roviana fishermen have
witnessed a magnitude of decline in this fishery
in their adult life time. Negative impacts of Live
Reef Fish Trade operations on spawning
aggregations of grouper have been as dramatic
and even more recent in this region (Hamilton
1999). Today there is an across the board
awareness in Roviana Lagoon that marine
resources are not nearly as abundant as they
used to be, a growing realization (especially
among the educated youth) that is over fishing
that has caused this.
There have been several encouraging signs that
Roviana communities are ready to practice more
sustainable measures. The recent establishment
of seasonal marine invertebrate refugia in
Roviana Lagoon provides one such example
(Aswani 2000). Another sign of changing times
and changing perceptions is the efforts of the
Dunde council of elders to place a complete
nighttime ban of nighttime spearfishing around
the Munda bar region in June 2001 (pers.
comm.). Although the motivations for these
conservation attempts may more accurately
reflect power struggles between different
entitlement groups then a conservation ethic per
se (Aswani pers. comm.), it is the growing
perception of limited resources that has brought
these power struggles and their resulting
conservation efforts about. On a broader scale,
positive signs are also coming out of other parts
of the Pacific, such as Vanuatu (Hickey, 2001),
Torres Strait Islands (Mulrennan, 2001) and
Samoa (Fa'asili, and Kelokolo, 1999), where
traditional reef owners are implementing new
management strategies in order to make their
marine resources more sustainable.
Putting Fishers’ Knowledge to Work: Conference Proceedings, Page 76
CONCLUSION
Indigenous fisheries in Melanesia are based on a
sophisticated traditional ecological knowledge
system that has built up over thousands of years.
Over time, these fisheries may have reached a
point of equilibrium with the local environments.
But it would be a mistake to assume that
indigenous fisheries systems are inherently
conservation oriented by design. It is frequently
the case that customary practices result in
conservation of resources, but as this study
demonstrates, the concept of maximisation of
returns is also an important factor in indigenous
fishing systems. In Roviana the indigenous topa
fishery was sustainable within the context of the
economies and technologies that existed prior to
1945.
But globalisation brought new
technologies and new markets. The indigenous
topa fishing system was so acutely tuned to the
subtleties of topa behaviour and ecology that
when the Roviana fishers continued the practice
of maximising returns, including the expansion
of the fishery to previously unfished areas, such
as inner lagoon areas and Tetapare, this had an
adverse effect on local ecologies.
To ensure the future sustainability of coastal
resources in the Solomon Islands, there is a need
for resource owners to develop management
plans that take local fishing patterns, Customary
Marine Tenure, local environmental knowledge
and scientific expertise into account. The scope
for developing fisheries management plans in
this region is increasing, as Roviana fishers come
to the realisation that their marine resources are
limited. From a western fisheries management
viewpoint, TEK provides an excellent source of
basic data on ecology and the status of the
fishery, parameters essential in the design of
sound management strategies.
But these
systems must be understood within the context
of contemporary economic realities, which
include not only those parts of the economy that
articulate with the west, but also the indigenous
economic and kinship networks. The existence
of CMT and TEK systems within Melanesian
fishing communities should not be taken to
imply sound management.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge a number of people
for their support during various phases of this
project. In the field I am grateful for the
kindness and support of Bailey Kama and family
and other members of the Nusabanga and
Roviana communities.
I am particularly
indebted to Warren Kama and Michael
Giningele. I would also like to thank the
paramount chiefs, Chief Joseph Kama and Chief
John Roni , for giving me permission to work in
this area. Shankar Aswani provided helpful
comments on this manuscript. Financial support
for this work was provided by the John D. and
Catherine P. Macarthur grant (#60243) headed
by Shankar Aswani, University of Santa Babara,
The PADI FOUNDATION, The PADI AWARE
Project and a University of Otago PhD
Scholarship.
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QUESTIONS
Bob Johannes: Was there ever a population on
Robiana Island large enough to put a stress on
the marine resources? Was the fishery in enough
trouble for them to develop a conservation ethic?
Richard Hamilton: I don’t think so. They have a
conservation ethic, but they were not at the point
where they really stressed the fishery.