Transcript
BRAD MOORE: In the Pacific, we have a large number of species that are harvested and they come from many different taxonomic families and quite often they can look very similar. So it can be quite daunting for surveyors to separate out the different species. So that's where we're really hoping that our guide will come in. It's to improve species identification and therefore result in better reporting of catches for our inshore fisheries and hopefully leading to improved monitoring and improved management.
ELEANOR WENMAN: And what existed before? Was there a guide beforehand?
BM: SPC has published a few guides to finfish in the Pacific but for SPC this is a first for the inshore species that are captured around coral reefs and adjacent habitats. I guess what separates ours is that it's been specifically designed for fisheries officers in the Pacific. So it's waterproof, meaning that people can take it on their surveys without fear of it getting wet or damaged, and it specifically focuses on the food fish that we have in the Pacific. We also provide the key identifying features that'll help separate similar looking species, and provide information on whether a particular species is present, likely present or absent in each of our 22 member countries that this guide has been designed for.
EW: Those 22 countries, they're all around the Pacific?
BM: Yeah, they're the 22 member countries of the SPC, so basically spanning from Palau in the west out to Pitcairn Island.
EW: And you're one of the co-authors on it, right?
BM: That's right, yes.
EW: Who is the other person?
BM: The other co-author is Boris Colas. He's a graphic designer.
EW: Were you mainly the research side of it?
BM: Yeah, so my job of it was to work out what species we wanted to include and then to try and source and to photograph and to provide information on the identifying features and the country distributions.
EW: I think I saw somewhere that you source photos from some amateur photographers as well.
BM: Yeah, that's right. The bulk of our photos came from John Randall, a renowned fish photographer and ichthyologist. But unfortunately he didn't have photos for all of our species so we put out a call for species and so from that we received a lot of interest and we had photos coming in from places as far away as Australia, Tasmania, Japan, United States and Canada.
EW: And do you know about how many of these guides will be distributed?
BM: We're distributing 500 out to the Pacific as a first run and they'll be distributed to the fisheries agencies, to NGO's and to reference libraries throughout the region.
