Transcript
SANGEETA MANGUBHAI: The group collectively came up with a range of things from really identifying that some communities especially where the coral reefs had been quite damaged will really need to do very light fishing maybe only subsistence fishing, not really have fishing licenses in their area and that they in particular might have a need for alternative other livelihoods in the interim in the next few years just to ease that fishing pressure off the reefs until they recover.
SALLY ROUND: This forum comes on top of a report where you've looked at those coastal communities in Fiji that were badly impacted by Cyclone Winston. You found that people were eating a lot less fish than they did before.
SM: Yes, so what we did was we asked them the number of times a week they were eating fresh fish before the cyclone versus after, and yes, we saw a massive drop in all the coastal villages that we surveyed. So some of them were eating fresh fish up to six times a week and that had dropped down to almost two, two and a half, some of them not at all. They were just completely reliant on the relief supplies that they got which is mainly dhal and tinned fish.
SR: What effect is this having on nutrition? They're getting replacement food but presumably that must be running out.
SM: This survey was done earlier on in the year and since then I think the results would have changed in that there have been communities that have gone back to fishing. The ones that have managed to purchase fishing gear to replace the ones that they have lost. But there are still communities ... we've been talking to them here at the fisheries forum ... that whatever they're fishing, they were telling us they are just consuming. They don't have enough to sell so they're just keeping what they can for themselves to maintain their nutrition because they know they need to be able to feed their families . We really need to go back and resurvey and see if that's returned to normal. I don't think so. I think some communities are struggling to fish. For example we found in the report that there's a lot of boats damaged or that were lost. They are limited in just wading out what they can get closer to shore.
SM: It's a tricky situation isn't it because the reefs were damaged and although they're short on equipment they don't want to be given a lot of replacement high impact equipment because that could then impact on the recovery of these ecosystems.
SM: Yes, that's correct. It's positive that the Ministry of Fisheries is working with the FAO and they've actually purchased hooks and lines to give out to communities so that they can immediately address their food needs, but yeah, it's important even as we keep moving forward with the recovery that we think about what types of gear communities are purchasing, avoiding ones that will actually just result in further degradation of the environment. We've actually showed them the data of what their community tabu areas - the temporary closures that they have - what the fish biomass and numbers were before the cyclone and after, and there's just been such substantial drops in the fish numbers.
SR: And more communities are instituting that period of no fishing to let things recover?
SM: Yeah, also one of the things in the report we asked communities, you know are you thinking about opening your tabu areas for food, are you thinking about opening them for income? You know it was really nice to see that many of the communities do understand that actually their reefs were quite damaged and actually a lot of them were proposing to keep them closed. Some groups in the Ra province have actually said we'd like to keep ours closed for the next ten years.
SR: You've also recommended that some communities may need other support for diversifying their protein source.
SM: Yes things like poultry farming ... chickens, but they could also sell the eggs, or sell the chickens and also use it for livelihoods as well. People were also throwing the idea to fisheries that may be we need to think about aquaculture . We do have some level of aquaculture in Fiji and maybe aquaculture could play that kind of interim ... if you have a disaster, maybe you could use that to supply fresh fish to communities.
