Transcript
MICHEL BERMUDES: In many countries of the Pacific region, beche-de-mer fisheries have been over exploited for many generations and this is always a challenge for those countries to implement a model that is sustainable in the long term. So, having a model with a hatchery capable of re-stocking the reef with juvenile and then going back to fish a percentage of these stocks that have been put back is a very straight forward model. So you know, you put back and you can go and harvest some of what you put back, so it's easy for people to get their head around.
INDIRA STEWART: So this model will not only continue to support the trade of sea cucumbers but also address the country's depleting stock?
MB: That's correct, yes. So the idea is to restart a fishery with a model that is going to be sustainable in the long term.
IS: What are stock levels like at the moment in Vanuatu?
MB: They're virtually depleted. They're coming back very slowly but it's such a slow breeding species that it's going to take many many years you know. You're looking at ten to fifteen years or more for some of these stocks to come back. And some will never come back to their original state.
IS: So with the sustainable model, when sea-cucumber will be harvested, how much will be able to be traded and how much will be put aside to use to breed?
MB: That's an interesting question. Look, it is a bit hard to tell at this stage but it is about the sustainability of the model. It's not so much about the quantity. This is about more smaller quantities but sustainable quantities. So exactly what the volume would be would depend on the effort on the ground, how many hatcheries would there be on the ground and what would be the output of these hatcheries. The key thing with this sort of project is we're going low-cost and low-tech. So this gives access to communities, to small enterepeneurs and to technology that they can influence really quickly without a lot of financial means. And the technology for breeding sandfish is reasonably easy. It's accessible to many.
IS: So once this hatchery is up and going, how long do you expect until you can start trading again and re-breeding again?
MB: You'd be looking at 2 years, 2 years from the first seedlings going into water to harvest again. But what we would like to see is that the hatchery is replicated in other places, so many more of this type of hatcheries can be built and re-stocked in different geographical areas in Vanuatu.
IS: If this sustainable model does well in Vanuatu will it perhaps be used elsewhere in the region?
MB: Yes, absolutely. And we'd make sure we had a process in place to try to replicate this model in other countries. We have a project currently in Kiribati as well looking at re-stocking the reef with sandfish also and many many countries in the Pacific are into this type of model.