Spawning potential surveys in Fiji: A new song of change for small‐scale fisheries in the Pacific

Abstract

Catastrophic overfishing of small-scale coastal fisheries through the Pacific poses a major threat to regional food security and biodiversity. Globally, approaches to fisheries assessment and management that were developed for industrial fisheries, are failing small-scale data-poor fisheries. The Pacific Community has called for a complete rethink of fisheries methodologies for the region; a "new song" of change for small-scale coastal fisheries. This article describes the application in Fiji of a new approach to facilitating coastal fisheries management reform. Spawning Potential Surveys (SPS) is a pragmatic multidisciplinary blend of sciences, that combines a new form of length-based assessment and communication strategies informed by theories of behavior change, nudge and diffusion, that is initiated with programs of citizen science to inform policy development and catalyze broader societal change. Our project successfully coordinated Fiji-based NGOs to work with the Ministry of Fisheries, communities, provincial government and supply chains, to collect the data needed to assess~90% of the Fijian reef fish catch, conduct the analyses needed to develop new management policies, and build a broad consensus in society to support the ongoing reform process that has now been initiated by the Ministry. This project demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the SPS methodology for informing and motivating coastal fisheries reform in the Pacific, as well as the necessity of a long term and multidisciplinary approach to achieve the societal change needed. K E Y W O R D S change management, coastal fisheries, coral reef fish, data-poor, fisheries management

Multibiomarker Responses to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Microplastics in Thumbprint Emperor Lethrinus Harak from a South Pacific Locally Managed Marine Area

“…All the sampled specimens were of mature size 84 ; the observed differences in K were thus most likely resulting from the reproductive activity. Indeed, thumbprint emperor reportedly reproduces in the wet season 85 . This is further supported by a lower HSI in the wet season, suggesting a lower general stored energy.…”

Linking small‐scale fisheries co‐management to U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

“…Lastly, one study (Léopold et al., 2013 ) demonstrated positive links between sea cucumber ( Holothuria scabra ) abundance, catch, and annual returns in New Caledonia following harvest restrictions, the longest causal pathway for which evidence could be found in the region. We acknowledge current work in Fiji (and other Pacific Island countries and territories) to update and incorporate species‐specific size limits into co‐management strategies (e.g., Prince et al., 2021 ), although these have not yet been quantitatively tested relative to specific outcomes.…”

“…Impact is the extent to which a difference has been made, or could be made, by an intervention over and above the counterfactual condition of no intervention or a different intervention (Ferraro, 2009;Pressey et al, 2015). In some instances, it is not always ethical to apply rigorous impact evaluation techniques, such as using specific communities as controls for interventions in other communities (Pynegar et al, 2021). Yet, the fields of development and philanthropy have successfully navigated this caveat, culminating in the 2019 Nobel P being shared among three people for use of randomized control trials in alleviating global poverty (Banerjee et al, 2010).…”

The life history of longnose emperors (Lethrinus olivaceus) and a data‐limited assessment of their stock to support fisheries management at Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia

“…These methods are costeffective and easy to implement, but require a basic understanding of the life-history parameters of targeted species and an adequate representation of the size distribution of the fish harvested in a given fishery (Hordyk et al, 2015a(Hordyk et al, , 2016. As a result, length-based stock assessments are now widely implemented to address critical knowledge gaps in the status of fisheries throughout the Pacific Islands and support improved fisheries management (Canales et al, 2021;Prince et al, 2020).…”