spc activitiescoastfish.spc.int/news/fish_news/79/fish_news_79.pdf · reinvented over the next few...

SPC Fisheries Newsletter #79 — October/December '96

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NUMBER 79CTOBER — DECEMBER 1996

Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

SPC ACTIVITIES Page 2

NEWS FROM IN AND AROUND THE REGION 4

ABSTRACTS & REVIEWS Page 21

NOTES ON LONGLINE VESSEL PARAMETERS Page 22FOR PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIESby S. Beverly

South Pacific CommissionPrepared by the Fisheries Programme Information Section

Printed with financial assistance from the Government of France

Bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) is one of the main speciestargetted by longline vessels


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SPC ACTIVITIES

RESOURCE ASSESSMENT SECTION

Fisheries management and marine conservation start to find common ground:A report on the World Conservation Congress

The SPC Coastal Fisheries Re-source Adviser, Dr Tim Adams,attended the first World Con-servation Congress in Mon-treal, Canada, in October 1996,at the invitation of the WorldConservation Union (IUCN), totake part in a two-day Fisher-ies panel discussion under theMarine and Coastal Workshopof the Congress.

This was a large meeting, thetriennial meeting of the IUCNgoverning body, and was at-tended by several thousandpeople overall.

There were a lot of workshopsgoing on simultaneously, andthe fisheries panel discussionover two days did not attractmany participants. Indeed, attimes, there were more present-ers than participants in theroom.

This low participation may alsohave been due to the generallylow profile that marine issueshave historically taken in theenvironmental calendar com-pared to terrestrial issues.

However, things are changing.Like environmental organisa-tions everywhere, IUCN isstarting to pay more attentionto marine ecosystems, andthere will be more and moreinterest by environmental or-ganisations in fisheries issues astime goes on.

Over the past couple of yearsthere has grown a general pub-lic perception that fisheries sci-ence and/or fisheries manage-ment has ‘failed’, ignoring therôle that unwise political deci-sions, taken in the face of goodadvice, have played. There are

likely to be a lot of wheelsreinvented over the next fewyears if this trend runs itscourse, and if dialogue betweenenvironmental and fisheriesinstitutions does not occur.

But the very fact that IUCN in-cluded a fisheries sessionwithin the World ConservationCongress was a welcome signthat the need for dialogue isrecognised. Sustainability offisheries is not a recent inven-tion, although broad publicsupport for it is, and fisheriesspecialists have a lot to contrib-ute alongside the new popularsupport for the development ofmore effective marine manage-ment systems.

The purpose of the Fisheriestheme in the Congress was toprovide some guidance toIUCN’s Marine and CoastalProgramme over the next threeyears. In addressing this workprogramme, the Fisheries groupwas complemented by concur-rent themes on Marine ProtectedAreas, Integrated Coastal AreaManagement and InternationalMarine Law.

At the end of two days discus-sion, these four groups ad-dressed the plenary Marine andCoastal Workshop with theirconclusions, the idea being thatthe IUCN Marine and CoastalProgramme would take theserecommendations and weavethe priorities into a coherentwork programme for the nextthree years.

The IUCN Marine and CoastalProgramme is run by MagnusNgoile and Paul Holthus (latelyof SPREP and The Nature Con-servancy in Hawaii).

The fisheries theme was key-noted by Dr Meryl Williams, di-rector of the International Centerfor Living Aquatic ResourcesManagement (ICLARM), whospoke on ‘Conservation and fish-eries: A roadmap for the newera’. Fisheries theme speakerswere:

☞ Dr Scott Parsons (Dept ofFisheries & Oceans, Canada):Opening remarks;

☞ Dr Angel Alcala (Commis-sion on Higher Education,Philippines): The roles ofcommunity-based fisheriesmanagement and marineprotected areas in coastalfisheries;

☞ Dr Mike Sissenwine (Na-tional Marine Fisheries Serv-ice, USA): The concept offisheries ecosystem manage-ment: Current approachesand future research needs;

☞ Dr Michael Sutton (World-wide Fund for Nature[WWF]): Influencing fisher-ies conservation: an interna-tional NGO perspective;

☞ Dr Jake Rice (Dept of Fisher-ies & Oceans, Canada): Fu-ture challenges for fisheriesresource assessment in theaid of fisheries management;


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☞ Dr Cornelia Nauen (Directo-rate-General for Develop-ment, European Commis-sion): New approaches todevelopment cooperation incapture and culture fisher-ies; and

☞ Dr Tim Adams (South Pa-cific Commission): Coastalfisheries and developmentissues for small islands.

The job of the SPC representa-tive was to focus attention onsmall islands as a ‘cross-cutting’issue. Although this was a smallsession, the scarcity of argu-mentative voices arguably pro-vided a little more freedom incoming up with a coherent setof issues to guide the futureIUCN work-programme.

When diverted by participantsquestions, discussion becameconfined to a narrow set of topi-cal issues, and the discussionoften had to be channelled backonto the bigger picture. Therewas actually material here forseveral full days of discussion.

For example, much of the dis-cussion in the fisheries themeon the first day centred on therecent red-listing of certainfishes, with the panel express-ing considerable doubt aboutthe wisdom of basing the crite-ria for red-listing purely onpercentage declines in popula-tion numbers over time, giventhe notorious variability ofaquatic ecosystems. Relative spe-cies abundances can change dra-matically over time even withouthuman intervention.

Some participants were nothappy with this criticism sinceIUCN has apparently spent fiveyears considering different op-tions and trying to make thered-listing criteria more rigor-ous. Unfortunately, they didn’tappear to consider the option of

having any fisheries specialistson the criterion developmentpanel.

The fisheries group stressed toplenary that their reservationswere not based on a wish to openup exploitation on red-listedspecies, but that the ease withwhich the scientific credibilityof the criteria could be under-mined might cast doubt on thewhole red-listing process.

The other major side-issue thefisheries panel discussed wasthe Unilever/WWF initiative toform the Marine StewardshipCouncil (MSC), and thereby toprovide a voluntary environ-mental labelling scheme forproducts of fisheries certified tobe sustainable. Again, the mainissue here was the criteria bywhich ‘sustainability’ would beassessed, and the panel’s frankassessment that this would bealmost impossible to carry outfairly, given our current lack ofknowledge about the status ofmany fisheries, let alone assess-ing what is sustainable.

WWF reckoned that this wouldbe developed from an initialempirical basis, and that a seriesof workshops and panelswould be held over the nextthree years to develop criteriaand indicators. But one worryraised by the panel was that thelack of knowledge aboutsmaller-scale fisheries wouldmitigate against small-scalefisheries and developing coun-try fisheries being certified, andthus against them obtainingpremium prices in first-worldmarkets.

Another worry was that most ofthe fishery export productscoming from the South Pacificthat are in need of (or amena-ble to) consumer-driven re-straints on exploitation are soldin Chinese-speaking countries,

and the meeting felt that thegreen consumer movement isnot yet a major market factor inmost of these areas.

The eventual review of eachfishery under the scheme forsustainability would be carriedout by independent assessmentagencies under the ægis of theMSC, and not by governmentsor producers.

WWF sees this as using marketleverage to actually advancefisheries management meas-ures. It would not be imposedfrom above by government, butwould be a positive incentive tobuy fish only from certifiedsustainable fisheries, in order toobtain a premium price fromthe ‘green consumer’. SPC willbe talking to the WWF aboutthe possibility of holding a tech-nical meeting to consider thepotential and pitfalls of such ascheme in the Pacific Islandsregion.

The final list of issues flagged bythe fisheries group for theIUCN Marine and Coastal Pro-gramme to consider in its futurework included the following:

☞ Supporting the ecosystemmanagement approach; butthe need was raised for someguidance, and fishery spe-cialist input, to the new Eco-system Management Coun-cil. It was also felt that therewas a need to clarify termsso everyone knows what isbeing talked about. IUCNwould have a rôle in coordi-nating this, and also in ‘sci-entific quality control’. Thefisheries group noted that alot of marine ecosystemmodels are descriptive only,and tools are also needed forprediction;

☞ There was a recommenda-tion on marine protected


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areas (MPAs), giving stronggeneral support to settingup MPAs, but warning thatthey need to be consideredin the socio-cultural context,and are only one in a rangeof potential fisheries orcoastal area managementtools available. There was aworry that they might beconsidered a panacea for alloverfishing problems andsoak up a disproportionateamount of small-countrybudgets.

It was noticeable that theMPA working group hadbeen thinking mostly in FirstWorld terms (e.g. the sessionleader talked about com-mercial and sport fisheries,but ignored subsistence),and it was also noticeablethat ‘sustaining fisheries’has become a major justifi-cation for setting up newMPAs, even though therehas been little real proof of-fered yet that MPAs wouldbe any better than othermanagement measures insustaining nearby fisheries.

The panel predicted that thiswould become an increas-ing source of potential ‘over-lap’ between environmentaland fisheries agencies in fu-ture. One thing is clearthough. MPAs are good atfocussing public attentionon issues. The basic gist ofthe fisheries panel’s recom-mendation to IUCN wasthat MPAs needed to be es-

tablished quickly, bearing inmind the precautionaryprinciple, but that a critical‘learning process’ had to bebuilt in;

☞ Encouraging FAO andIUCN (and indeed, all fish-eries and environment agen-cies) to get together and talkmore;

☞ Emphasising the impor-tance of the human elementin small-scale fisheries. Fromthe technocrat’s point ofview this could be sold as‘using people’s interest as adoor into management’.IUCN could also help in thedefinition of the carryingcapacity of the fisheries en-vironment, around the morespecific stock assessmentscarried out by fisheries spe-cialists;

☞ The important rôle that theIUCN Commission on Edu-cation has to play, especiallyin addressing the need forschool marine-related cur-riculum development and

development of teachingresources in small-islandcountries; and

☞ One of the workshop recom-mendations advised IUCNto play a part in ‘legitimisingstakeholders’. It wasn’t ex-actly clear what this meant,but it seemed to refer eitherto the need to get more peo-ple around the table whentalking about fisheries prob-lems, not just fishermen &fisheries departments, and/or to the need to help localpeople feel that THEY ownthe projects, not just the im-plementing agency.

Dr Williams finished off thefisheries workshop presenta-tion to plenary by reiteratingher keynote point, that we arenow in a third stage of globalfisheries development, wherethe precautionary principleholds sway, and that the veryfact that IUCN had invited abunch of fisheries ‘types’ to itstriennial planning meeting wasan illustration of this ‘paradigmshift’.

Coastal Fisheries Resource Assessment and Management Section update

The section provides severalservices to member countries,as well as maintaining an ‘over-view’ of the status of coastalfishery resources in the region.

However, the chief activity, incollaboration with the Coastal

Fisheries Post-Harvest Section,is the implementation of theUnited Kingdom ODA-fundedIntegrated Coastal FisheriesManagement Project (ICFMaP)during the period 1995–97. Pre-vious ICFMaP subprojects arebriefly described in previous

SPC Fisheries Newsletters, but aseries of in-depth field reportswill be listed in the newsletterfor public release in the thirdquarter of 1997.

Subprojects have been carriedout, or are under way, in Cook


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Islands, Fiji, Tonga and PapuaNew Guinea, and one remain-ing sub-project is arranged inTokelau, which it is hoped toimplement in the second quar-ter of 1997.

ICFMaP was set up to assistSPC island member fisheriesdepartments to develop manage-ment measures or plans for spe-cific high-priority or ‘problem’fisheries (including the integra-tion of economic efficiencies oralternatives), as well as to pro-mote coastal fisheries manage-ment awareness in the region.

The first year of the project (Sep-tember 1994 to August 1995)concentrated on regional issues,drawing together as much in-formation on existing fisheriesmanagement measures andcoastal fishery resource statusas possible, and organising amajor international workshopon inshore fisheries manage-ment.

The activity during the secondtwo years of the project (Sep-tember 1995 to August 1997)concentrates on specific in-coun-try case-studies. These were iden-tified and arranged by agree-ment with those member coun-tries that submitted requests forICFMaP collaborative assistancein 1995, but the project retainsa certain flexibility to undertakesome additional work, providedthat requests fall within theguidelines for implementation.

The Resource Assessment andManagement Section, of course,also continues to service ad-hocrelevant requests for informa-tion or advice that do not in-volve staff travel or largeamounts of time. As well as an-swering questions within ourown area of expertise in coastalfishery resource assessmentand management (and, increas-ingly, aquaculture), we endeav-

our to put people in touch withpossible sources of advice inother countries and institutions.We are also available if any mem-ber country fisheries depart-ment needs an opinion on theresults of any work carried outeither by their own staff or byoutside consultants, even if onlyto double-check calculations.

In short, unlike many special-ised institutions, we are notcompletely wrapped up in ourown work but we try to helpmember countries whereverpossible. Informal queries arewelcomed.

Unfortunately, (we wouldprobably be extremely popularotherwise) we do not have anyfunds for awarding grants. Wedo the work rather than payingconsultants, and we try to getinvolved only in national activi-ties which need a bit of assist-ance or experienced advicerather than carrying out ‘stand-alone’ activities.

In addition to the usual meth-ods of communication withSPC, of which Peacesat prob-ably has the best cost/speedratio, we now do a lot of busi-ness via email. If you have email,try reaching us on [email protected] [email protected] ([email protected] for post-harvestissues).

Unfortunately, SPC has not yetbeen able to get a good enoughline to run its own World-WideWeb server, but we are gradu-ally converting and adding re-ports and publications to theinternal network.

When full Internet facilities fi-nally arrive, we will be able toimmediately launch a library ofelectronic publications aboutPacific Island inshore fisheriesresource and management is-sues onto the World-Wide Web.

The main news from the sectionthis quarter is the resignationand departure of Paul Dalzell,SPC Inshore Fisheries Scientist.Paul has joined the WesternPacific Region Fisheries Man-agement Council in Hawaii(WPRFMC)—the statutory bodythat is responsible for the man-agement of the EEZs of Hawaiiand US Pacific Island territories.

Paul’s departure was reluctantsince he enjoyed his work atSPC, but when you are onshort-term contract you have totake your employment chanceswhen you can. At the time ofPaul’s departure there wereonly nine months left to run onthe ICFMaP project which paysthe salary of the Inshore Fisher-ies Scientist, with no commit-ment for renewal, whilst theWPRFMC job is not limited byshort-term project funding.

Paul’s expertise in the stockassessment of reef fishes andsmall pelagics, not to mentionhis prolific written output, willbe sorely missed, and our bestwishes go with him and hiswife, Nellie. With less than ayear left to run on the project itis not feasible to recruit a newperson to the IFS post.

Instead, with the agreement ofthe Fiji Fisheries Division, thecurrent ICFMaP secondmentofficer Esaroma Ledua will stayon with ICFMaP until the endof the project in August 1997.


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The ICFMaP project was re-viewed by the United KingdomOverseas Development Ad-ministration in December. Thisphysical review occurs approxi-mately once a year, and meas-ures the progress of the projecttowards its milestones, andagainst the logical frameworkthat was drawn up at the startof the project.

The review is also an opportu-nity for the project supervisorsto amend the framework ac-cording to changing circum-stances. Although the SouthPacific Commission is more in-terested in seeing how its workfits in with the changing needsexpressed by member coun-tries, and thus how membercountries view the project, ad-herence to the original logicalframework is more importantto the donor. Much of the re-view thus consisted of trying toreconcile these two sets of occa-sionally disparate expectations.

Although the results of the re-view are not officially known,the most likely future path forICFMaP is to use the savingsgenerated by the reduction instaffing over the next year toextend a small component ofthe project beyond the officialclosing date of August 1997.

Substantial extension of thisactivity under the current donoris unlikely, since the UK aidstrategy for the future in theregion has been focussed toconcentrate on assistance ineducation and governance.

Fisheries, like some other majorsectors, is likely to suffer. At thesame time, global environmen-tal organisations and donors arestarting to pay more attention tothe need for better managementof small-scale and reef fisheries,and marine resource invento-ries.

Since this is exactly the kind ofwork that has been carried outby the SPC Resource Assess-ment and Management Sectionfor the past five years, we hopethat duplication will not occurand that future support for thesection will start coming in fromthis direction as well as from‘traditional’ fisheries sources.

One of the main conclusions ofthe regional ‘overview’ compo-nent of the ICFMaP project isthat, unlike the gloomy percep-tions about the state of fisheriesand fisheries management inthe rest of the world, the PacificIslands have considerable causefor optimism about their coastalfisheries.

Of course, there are high profileproblems, some of which aresevere, but these are mainlyconfined to export fisheries anda few densely-populated is-lands—the very areas wherewestern values and the casheconomy is strongest. In com-parison to the rest of the world,Pacific Island domestic foodfisheries are spread over a verywide range of species and arestill mainly non-commercial.

The few rigorous studies thathave been done suggest thatthey are sustainable at currentlevels of exploitation. Of course,fishing, and the regulation offishing, has been a major part ofPacific Island societies for hun-dreds of years (thousands, inMelanesia).

The Pacific Islands thus have alot to teach the rest of the world.But the world will not learnthose lessons unless a great dealmore effort is put into the studyof Pacific Island fisheries andfishing societies, and unless thechanging trend away fromshort-term, fly-by-night ven-tures and towards longer-termlocal sustainability is assisted tocompletion.

ICFMaP Milne Bay fieldwork

In October the Resource Assess-ment Section assisted the Na-tional Fisheries Authority ofPapua New Guinea in carryingout some field investigationstowards the management ofbeche-de-mer and giant clamsin Milne Bay Province.

The rapid resource appraisalwas carried out under the lead-ership of Paul Lokani of thePNG NFA with support fromMilne Bay Provincial FisheriesOffice, and with the assistance

and expert advice of SPCICFMaP officers Esaroma Leduaand Sione Vailala Matoto. Thework was mainly based aboarda PNG Provincial Fisheries ex-tension vessel. Beche-de-merand giant clam abundance andbiodiversity were assessed by

underwater visual census over100 m transects at 63 sites.

Obviously there is little hope ofaccomplishing a statistically rig-orous appraisal of patchily-dis-tributed organisms over a vastarea within the four weeks


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available for this fieldwork, butthe three scientists betweenthem have many years of expe-rience of appraising similar re-sources in several Pacific Islandcountries and the fieldworkprovides an expert opinion onthe state of resources. This, cou-pled with analysis of historicalinformation, will enable PapuaNew Guinea to make a decisionon the type of managementmeasures necessary to bestmaintain these highly valuableorganisms.

At the time of writing, the datafrom this fieldwork has notbeen completely analysed, butindications are that the originalpopulation of Tridacna gigas—the largest giant clam and themain target for poachers andcommercial export—has beenreduced by at least 80 per centin the province.

This estimate is based on theratio of dead shells to live shellsseen during the survey, so itcannot be said over exactlywhat timescale this level of ex-ploitation has occurred.

However, even if this is over adecade, it is still an extremelyhigh rate of poaching or exploi-tation for an organism which islong-lived, of a low naturalmortality, and subject to fre-quent recruitment failures.

The study will also attempt toestimate overall giant clamabundance, but this is likely tohave a very large statistical un-certainty compared to relativeestimates of mortality. Oncebaselines are normalised, mor-tality estimates can also bechecked by comparing the cur-rent abundance of live animalsto abundance in surveys carriedout previously.

In terms of biodiversity, MilneBay Province has 7 of the 8 rec-ognised species of giant clampresent in its waters, with themost abundant being T. maxima.The only species not present,Tridacna tevoroa, has so far onlybeen found in eastern Fiji andTonga, on the eastern limit ofthe range of the larger giantclams.

The results of this work, and ofthe parallel study on beche-de-mer, will be reported in the nextquarterly fisheries newsletter.During the first quarter of 1997,ICFMaP will complete the workof assisting the Cook IslandsMinistry of Marine Resourcesand the Aitutaki Island Councilto develop a Management Planfor the Aitutaki Lagoon fisherythat was legally designatedunder the 1989 Fisheries Act.

Further analysis of data fromother subprojects will occur,and be brought into publishableform, and preparation will be-gin for the Tokelau lagoon fish-ery management subproject.

TRAINING SECTION

Second regional workshop on sashimi tuna

The first regional workshop onthe handling, quality assess-ment and grading of sashimituna was held in Chuuk, Fed-erated States of Micronesia inAugust 1995, and was followedby two in-country workshopsin Papua New Guinea in De-cember 1995 and French Poly-nesia in May 1996. These two-day workshops were conductedby Ken Harada, Sydney FishMarket’s Quality Control Of-ficer, with teaching inputs fromSection staff.

As a consequence of the devel-opment of domestic tuna long-

line operations in the region,there is an increasing trainingneed in the area of tuna han-dling and grading, and, follow-ing the request of some mem-ber countries, the SPC CoastalFisheries Programme will or-ganise a second regional work-shop on sashimi tuna in 1997. Itis likely that the one-weekworkshop will be held inTonga, and the tentative datesare 19–23 or 26–30 May.

The workshop will be jointlyprepared and implemented bythe Post-harvest and TrainingSections with Section staff se-

lecting participants and makingarrangements for tutors, travelsand general logistics.

It is also possible that SPCMasterfisherman Steve Beverlywill be present for the work-shop and will assist with someof the lectures and practicals.Ken Harada will again be themain workshop tutor and hisdirector, Mr Graham Crouch,will give a presentation on thetuna marketing opportunitiesin Australia.

The workshop lectures willcomprise an introduction to the


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Japanese sashimi markets, tunabiology and physiology, on-board tuna handling, qualityassessment, on-shore handlingand packing. ‘Hands-on’ dem-onstrations of tuna handlingand grading will also be carriedout. Some of the resource ma-terials (video and manual onthe on-board handling ofsashimi-grade tunas) that havebeen produced by the Sectionwill be used for this workshop.

Funding for the second regionalworkshop will be provided byUNDP under the SPC-FFA Re-gional Fishery Support NationalCapacity Building project. Inaddition, a funding proposal ofUS$ 35,000 for additional activi-ties in this area was approvedby the Government of Taiwan/ROC in December 1996.

New video soon

A video focusing on the man-agement skills required to suc-cessfully operate a small fishingbusiness will be filmed in Fiji inFebruary this year. This pro-gramme will complement theSection’s resource materialsproduced to assist with in-country training initiatives inthe area of small business man-agement.

These materials, which includethe SPC fishing logbook, aspreadsheet and a teachingmanual, had been reviewedand finalised by the participantsto a regional ‘train-the-trainer’workshop in Santo, Vanuatu, inMarch 1996. Subsequently dis-tributed to all fisheries admin-

istrations and training institu-tions in the region, the materi-als have been used in a series ofnational workshops in Niue,Solomon Islands, Papua NewGuinea and Tuvalu.

The video script, written by ex-FETA and next FTO, AlastairRobertson, tells the story ofPauli, a typical Pacific Islandfisherman who believes more inhis fishing skills than in recordkeeping.

The problems start with a letterfrom the bank informing Pauliand his wife Mere that theirboat will be repossessed if theoutstanding loan repaymentsare not received within a week!

Fortunately, Pauli’s friend,Luka, is a fisherman who hasattended some training courseson the management of smallfishing businesses. Luka willexplain Pauli and Mere how toproperly keep financial and triprecords with the SPC logbook.He will also stress the impor-tance of these records and theiruse and will give some adviseon how to fish ‘smarter’.

The video will be filmed andedited by the SPC RegionalMedia Centre in Suva. It shouldbe completed and ready fordistribution around mid-1997.

CAPTURE SECTION

Update of country assignment—ice fish correctly

The New Caledonian countryassignment, being conductedby the Section’s Masterfisher-man, Steve Beverly, concludedin late December. Steve’s workwith the local tuna longlinecompany, Navimon, had himundertake trips on three of thecompany’s five vessels. Thefishing side of Steve’s work wasreviewed in detail in the lastedition of this newsletter, andwill not be covered again here.

Steve has been able to providepositive feedback to the skip-pers and crew of the vessels, aswell as the shore management,on areas of the fishing gear andtechnique that could be im-proved. Some of these improve-ments, such as using longerfloatlines to get the gear fishingdeeper, and using a sea surfacetemperature indicator, weretried on one vessel with bettercatch rates being achieved. It isnot possible to draw any defi-

nite conclusions from this onetrial, however, the results werevery encouraging.

The other main area that Stevewas able to assist in, was im-proving the on-board handlingof the catch, primarily the icingand storage of the catch. On allof the vessels, Steve found thatinsufficient ice was available foricing the fish if there were goodcatches. This was due to limitedice being loaded on the vessel


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Figure 1: Icing fish in a vertical position with belly down(note that fish are not touching each other)

(the cost of ice was equivalentto US$ 200 per tonne), and thelimited capacity of the on-boarddesalination plant that providedfresh water for the on-board icemachine. On two trips, this com-bination resulted in lost fishingtime due to ice shortages.

When sufficient ice was avail-able, Steve demonstrated thecorrect method of icing sashimigrade tunas. This process startswith a good layer of soft ice ofsufficient depth to last for theduration of the trip (about 20 to25 cm). The fish should be icedin a vertical position, bellydown and back up (Figure 1).

It is acceptable for the headsand tails to touch but the bod-ies of fish should be kept sepa-rate—a finger’s width spaceshould be left between fish, andbetween fish and the walls ofthe hold or bin boards.

On the day after icing, fishshould be re-iced (Figure 2) byremoving all air pockets or ‘ig-loos’ (Figure 3) from around thebody of the fish. As many asthree or four layers of fish canbe packed in this way, with thelayer of ice between layers offish needing only to be four tosix cm thick.

On following days, any headsor bodies showing through theice should be covered again.The ice used should always bechopped and smashed until itis ‘soft’—lumpy ice will dentthe fish. Ice can be choppedwith a shovel and then smashedto smaller pieces by stampingon it. For larger fish some iceshould be put into the gill cav-ity as well.

Figure 2: Re-icing fish after oneday to remove air pockets


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One technique for icing largefish is to lay them first on theirsides on the starting layer. Nextsome soft ice is shovelled ontothe fish but not enough to coverthem completely.

Then the fish are turned to thevertical position by twisting thetails until the fish have turnedupright. As this is done ice willfall under the fish and supportthem long enough to allowthem to be covered completely.This technique works best ifseveral fish are iced at one timein a row.

In preparing the fish for icing,care is needed to ensure that allblood is rinsed from fish beforethey are placed into the fish-hold. It is easy to hold the fishup by the tail with the headdown so that blood and rinsewater can be drained onto thedeck prior to placing the fishinto the fish-hold.

The fish-hold and the iceshould be kept as clean as pos-sible. Lastly, when fish are re-moved from the ice at off-load-ing, water should be sprayedon the ice only and not di-rectly onto the fish.

Figure 3: Air pockets formed around fishduring the first day of icing

In between trips on theNavimon vessels, Steve went tothe Cook Islands for one weekto work with the Ministry forMarine Resources to develop aproposal to assist local tuna

longline operators. A summaryof this trip is covered in a sepa-rate article in this newsletter,‘New life for old gear in CookIslands’.

Review of constraints to develop and expandthe domestic tuna longline fishery in Tonga

The Fisheries Development Ad-viser, Lindsay Chapman, spentthree weeks in Tonga conduct-ing a review of the constraintson the development and expan-sion of a domestic tuna longlinefishery in Tonga.

Lindsay held meetings withstaff from the Ministry of Fish-eries, local fishermen and proc-essors, and officers from other

government departments thatwere involved in different as-pects of fish exports, training, orports and services.

Based on the information col-lected at these meetings, 22 is-sues were identified as con-straining the development of atuna longline fishery (or otherexport-focused fisheries).

The issues identified werewide-ranging and included:

• the process and costs associ-ated with the issue of exportlicences (issued for one con-signment of fish only);

• the lack of knowledge on thetuna resource in Tongan wa-ters;


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• the most suitable vessel fortuna longlining in Tonga;

• the manning, safety andtraining requirements forthe fishing industry;

• the role of the Ministry ofFisheries in developmentwork;

• the potential conflict of inter-est of some staff in the Min-istry of Fisheries;

• the need for local operators,including the Ministry ofFisheries, to work togetherand not compete;

• the availability of wharfspace, airfreight space andbait for tuna operators;

• the handling of product byairline staff when exporting;

• the standards for processingplants to meet HACCP (haz-ard analysis of critical con-trol points);

• the potential for, and typesof, foreign investment;

• the support industries neededto keep a fishing fleet opera-tional; and

• the need to be able to oper-ate seven days a week ifweather conditions and flightschedules require.

A draft report of the findingswas presented to a public meet-ing and was well received. Par-ticipants at the meeting askedquestions and sought clarifica-tions regarding some of the 38recommendations in the draftreport.

The Secretary for Fisheries,‘Akau’ola, also stated that thedraft report would be very use-ful for his Ministry as it identi-fied and pulled together all ofthe constraints into one docu-ment.

He said that this draft reportcomplemented the economicwork recently undertaken bythe Forum Fisheries Agency,and that all of this would guidethe Ministry of Fisheries’ ap-proach towards encouragingthe development and expan-sion of the domestic tunalongline industry in Tonga.

Another part of Lindsay’s re-view consisted of a trip on-board one of the local tuna long-line vessels, F/V Capricorn II, toidentify areas that could be im-proved and assess the require-ments for a longer-term coun-try visit by the Commission’sMasterfisherman.

Several problems were identi-fied by Lindsay as constrainingthe potential of the operation.The most important of thesewas the limited below-deck ice-

hold space (1.5 tonnes of fishmaximum with ice) whichmeant that ice-chests needed tobe carried on deck to storeenough fish to make fishingoperations viable.

This greatly affected the fishingoperation, especially duringline hauling and the cleaning ofthe catch, as large areas of thedeck space were used for stor-ing ice-chests.

On this trip, over 2 t of fish werecaught during three sets of the650-hook longline. Catch rateswere excellent, however, prob-lems were encountered withicing of the catch (the trip hadto be cut short), and with thehydraulic system (which af-fected the operation of the linethrower and the mainline reel).

A report of this trip was com-piled, highlighting many areasthat could be improved and rec-ommendations on possible solu-tions, and presented to the ves-sel owner as well as being incor-porated in the draft report pre-sented to the public meeting.

The Section has also madeprogress on several reports ontechnical assistance to membercountries and territories. Thefirst, ‘Tuna fisheries develop-ment assistance, East New Brit-ain, Papua New Guinea’,should be published in the firstquarter of 1997.

New life for old gear in the Cook Islands

On a recent visit to Rarotonga,Cook Islands (27 October to 2November) SPC Masterfisher-man Steve Beverly saw two thingsthat were very encouraging.

One was an old Ministry ofMarine Resources vessel thathas been restored to better-than-new condition, and the

other is a new improvement onthe old FAO Samoan Handreel.

The purpose of the Masterfish-erman’s visit, however, was toliaise with MMR Secretary, RayNewnham, and Colin Brown,formerly of MMR and FFA, tocome up with a proposal for afuture SPC Capture Section as-

signment to Cook Islands. TheCapture Section attachmentwill take place in early 1997 andwill involve technical assistanceto the fledgling longline indus-try in Cook Islands. The mainlongline operator in Rarotongais Lucky Matapuku. Lucky hasa 16-metre vessel and is in ajoint venture with Sealords of


12

SPC ACTIVITIES

New Zealand, operating a pack-ing house and exporting tuna toJapan and other markets.

The project will also assistartisanal and FAD fishermanand work on upgrading theFAD skills of MMR FisheriesOfficers. SPC’s Fisheries Devel-opment Adviser and Master-fisherman will share the work-load, and at the end of the projectthey will conduct a workshop onfishing vessels, including main-tenance and management; fishhandling, processing, and mar-keting; and post-harvest (value-added products).

It was while working on thefirst draft proposal for theproject that the Masterfisher-man had a chance to see therefurbished Ton-7 vessel andthe new improved Cook Is-lands’ version of the FAO Sa-moan Hand Reel.

Brent Fisher, a Cook Islandsresident originally from NewZealand, is a very enterprisingsort of person. By trade he is anelectrician, but an interest infishing saw him enrolled in anFAO boat-building coursesome years back. As a result ofthe skills he learned on thecourse he built an FAO-de-signed fishing outrigger canoe.

The canoe has been the mainvessel in Brent’s fishing charterbusiness, Fishing Tours(Rarotonga). Brent takes up tofour or five anglers at a time onaround-the-island trolling trips,catching mahi mahi, skipjacktuna, and the occasional yellow-fin tuna.

The canoe is powered by a four-stroke outboard and, accordingto Brent, is very seaworthy.Brent wanted to expand his busi-ness, however, and move into alarger vessel and also into themore lucrative commercial fish-

ing for bottom snappers andexport tuna. The problem wasfinding a suitable and afford-able vessel.

Several years ago, MMR had anFAO Ton-7 (8.8-metre diesel)built in Tonga for use as a fisher-ies survey vessel. The boat wasquite successful during the firstfew years of operation but latersuffered from lack of use andended up on the hard.

It was here that Brent first sawher. It probably wasn’t love atfirst sight but Brent could seethe potential—if a little bit oftender loving care was applied.The vessel was auctioned off byMMR and Brent submitted thewinning bid. At the time theboat was not operational andhad several rotten timbers andbroken bits and pieces.

Today the newly painted andre-named Peka-Anne sitsproudly in Avatiu Harbourwith all systems operational,including a four-mile longlinereel and a hydraulic hauler forbottom longline gear.

Brent reckons he got a real bar-gain but he has had to put sev-eral thousand dollars into Peka-Anne and lots of time and la-bour. In addition to replacing allof the bad wood Brent fabri-cated a new canopy over theback deck and extended thewheelhouse, which now has allnew perspex windows.

On the last day of his visit, theMasterfisherman accompaniedBrent and his crewman, ChrisMussell, on a shake-downcruise to test the longline gear.Brent will be one of the fisher-man that SPC will be assistingin 1997.

The modified FAO/Samoan handreel


13

SPC ACTIVITIES

On this short five-hour trip inOctober, the plan was only todemonstrate setting and haulingtechniques. To make the processmore realistic, bait was used,but nobody expected to catchany fish as the line was onlygoing to soak for an hour or so.

To everyone’s surprise, a 22 kgalbacore tuna was landed witha set of just 40 hooks. The linewas set just two miles north ofAvatiu Harbour. Brent willqualify to fish inside of the six-mile limit as Peka-Anne is lessthan ten metres in length. If thisfirst venture into small-scalelongline fishing is any indica-tion, the new lease of life givento Peka-Anne should prove to bequite successful for Brent Fisher.He certainly has the right sur-name for the job.

Josh Mitchell, MMR Surveil-lance Officer, took the Master-fisherman on a tour of all ofMMR’s facilities and intro-duced him to the staff. One ofthe staff, MMR Fisheries OfficerWilliam Powell, is something ofan inventor. In fact, he is affec-tionately referred to by some as‘Gyro Gearloose’.

When the Masterfishermanwent to William’s shop he sawthe reason for this nickname.William is a prolific tinkerer. Athis shop he had, among otherthings, an electric coconutscraper of his own design forwhich he now has about twentyorders. Production of the coco-nut scrapers was progressingslowly, so William made hisown electric hacksaw for cut-ting the steel grater from a largepiece of a second-hand steelshaft. Cutting the first one or twoby hand was a time-consumingand very laborious task.

William’s electric hacksaw, whichis made from an old motor,hand-made wooden pulleys and

levers, and a regular hand-heldhacksaw, has changed all that.

William took a similar approachwhen it came to making stand-ard FAO-designed Samoanhandreels for bottom fishing.He looked at a standard reeland thought to himself, ‘I canmake that better’. And he did!

William has added a free-spoolfeature to the reel so that linecan be played out faster. Butmore importantly, he has addeda brake and a ratchet so that hisreels operate much the sameway as a commercial made reel.

The ratchet is made from woodand the brake mechanism is

made from a pipe flange (seephotos). The parts are availablealmost anywhere, it just tooksome innovation to come upwith the design.

William has plenty of orders forhis newly-designed reel, and ifit proves to be successful inRarotonga then it might take offthroughout the region.

The Masterfisherman is eager toreturn to Rarotonga to see howBrent is doing with Peka-Anneand to find out the results frombottom fishing trials with thenew hand reels.

William Powell shows part of his modifiedFAO/Samoan handreel


14

NEWS FROM IN & AROUND THE REGION

WESTERN PACIFIC REGIONAL FISHERY MANAGEMENTCOUNCIL (91ST MEETING)

The 91st Western Pacific Re-gional Fishery ManagementCouncil meeting was convenedbetween 19 and 21 November1996 in Honolulu. The meetingmarked the 20th anniversary ofthe establishment of the West-ern Pacific Council, whichalong with seven other FisheryCouncils manages fisherieswithin the US Exclusive Eco-nomic Zone (EEZ, from 3 to 200n.mi. offshore).

The Magnuson Fishery Conser-vation and Management Act of1976 established US jurisdictionover fisheries in federal EEZwaters and created the eightregional councils to oversee fish-eries in their respective areas.

The Western Pacific Council isthe policy-making organisationfor the management of fisheriesin the EEZ and adjacent watersaround American Samoa,Guam, Hawaii, the NorthernMarianas and several othersmaller islands and atolls.

The total area of ocean underthe Western Pacific Council’sjurisdiction amounts to 1.5 mil-lion sq. miles and representsabout half of all US EEZ waters(see figure).

Sixteen Council members rep-resent the fishing communityand government agencies of theregion. Half of the members aredesignated territorial, state, andfederal officials with fisherymanagement responsibilities.The others are appointed by theUS Secretary of Commerce torepresent commercial and rec-reational fishing interests.

The present Council Chairmanis Mr James Cook from Hawaii,a commercial fisherman and

partner in Pacific Ocean Produc-ers, a commercial fishing gearsupplier. Vice-Chairs are MrPaul Bordallo (Chairman of theGuam Economic DevelopmentAuthority), Mr William Paty(Mark A. Robinson Trust, Ha-waii), Mr Arnold Palacios (Di-rector of CNMI Division of Fish& Wildlife) and Dr PaulStevenson (South Pacific Re-sources Inc (BHP), AmericanSamoa).

Apart from being the 20th an-niversary of the Council, the91st meeting was also jointlyconvened with the Marine Ad-visory Committee (MAFAC) tothe Secretary of Commerce.MAFAC members come pre-dominantly from the privatesector and advise the NationalMarine Fisheries Service (NMFS)on their work programmes.

Some of the issues discussedduring the 91st Council in-cluded possible high-grading(selective discarding of lower-value animals) in the NorthWestern Hawaiian Islands(NWHI) lobster fishery, resource

interaction allocation problemsin the Hawaiian domesticpelagic fisheries at the CrossSeamount, bycatch of turtlesand albatross and incidentalcatches of sharks in the Hawai-ian longline fishery, manage-ment of the bottomfish fisheryin the NWHI, and traditionalharvesting of turtles by nativepeoples in the Councils area ofjurisdiction.

These and other issues will beaddressed over the next fewmonths by Council staff work-ing with the various fisheriesagencies within the WesternPacific region and progress willbe reported at the 92nd Coun-cil meeting in April.

The Council also reviewed thereauthorised Magnuson-StevensFishery Conservation and Man-agement Act of 1996 which wassigned into law on 11 October1996. Provisions of particularinterest to the Council include:

☞ allowing foreign fishingwithin the 200-mile EEZs ofAmerican Samoa, Guam

Caribbean Council2%

Western PacificRegional Fishery

Management Council48%

Pacific Council7%

Gulf of MexicoCouncil

6% South AtlanticCouncil

4%Mid-Atlantic

Council2%

New EnglandCouncil

2%

North Pacific Council29%

The different jurisdictions covering the US EEZ[total: 3,252,600 sq. nautical miles]


15


and CNMI at the request ofthe Governor, in which ac-cess fees would be turned

over to the island govern-ment for marine conserva-tion in those areas;

☞ establishing a Western Pa-cific Community Develop-ment Program to provideopportunities for communi-ties of indigenous residentsin the Council area to in-

crease their share of the eco-nomic benefit;

☞ funding for indigenous com-munities to develop fishingconservation managementand enforcement plans andprojects.

(Source: Paul Dalzell, WPRFMC)

FIFTH INDO-PACIFIC FISH CONFERENCE

The Fifth Indo-Pacific Fish Con-ference will be held in Noumea(New Caledonia) from 3 to 8November 1997. Hosts will beORSTOM and SPC (South Pa-cific Commission), with thesponsorship of the SFI (FrenchSociety of Ichthyology). Pro-ceedings will be published inthe journal Cybium.

There will be two major themes:biodiversity and biology–ecol-ogy. For the first theme, three ses-sions are planned, one on sys-tematics, one on the conserva-tion of fishes and a third on theuses of biodiversity in fisheries.

For the second theme three ses-sions are planned: one on repro-

duction, growth and physiol-ogy; a second one on popula-tion and community ecology;and a third on applied and evo-lutionary genetics.

Eight workshops have beendesignated for the followingsubjects: parasitology, humanculture and fish in the Pacific,databases, perspectives in ich-thyology, collection manage-

ment, fish behaviour, ichthyo-toxicity, and elasmobranchs asbiological models.

A number of other workshopsmay take place, for instance onfish reserves. Poster sessionswill also be available. A secondcircular will be sent in Decem-ber 1996 and a last circular inApril 1997.

To receive more information orto register, please contact:

Michel Kulbicki,ORSTOM, B.P. A5, Noumea,

New Caledonia.Tel: (687) 261000, fax: (687) 264326,e-mail: [email protected]

MARINE BENTHIC HABITATS & THEIR LIVING RESOURCES

A conference on MarineBenthic Habitats and Their Liv-ing Resources (Monitoring,Management and Applicationto Pacific Island Countries) isplanned for 10 to 16 November1997 in Nouméa, New Caledo-nia. The primary goals of theconference are to:

1. bring together geologists andbiologists studying the rela-tionship between marine ge-ology and living marine re-sources, including marinebiodiversity and fisheries; and

2. provide a synthesis of the insitu technology available to

study and monitor thebenthic submarine environ-ment. The ultimate goal istechnology transfer to Pa-cific Island nations.

At the 1996 SOPAC (South Pa-cific Applied Geoscience Com-mission) meeting, it wasstrongly recommended by theisland nations that a habitatconference be organised in theregion.

IFREMER [French Institute ofResearch for Ocean Develop-ment], ORSTOM [French Insti-tute of Scientific Research forCooperative Development] and

the South Pacific Commission,have agreed to host the confer-ence in Noumea. The confer-ence is under the joint sponsor-ship of SOPAC and the IOC (In-tergovernmental OceanographicCommission), specifically itsregional subsidiary body IOC/WESTPAC.

The two main subjects relatedto marine habitats are fisheriesand biodiversity. It is well knownthat many fisheries around theworld are declining.

Thus, studies aimed at under-standing the importance of fish-ery habitats are important for


16


management purposes, espe-cially if harvest refugia can beestablished to help replenishcertain living resources. PacificRim countries may need assist-ance in investigating their fish-ery habitats to develop sustain-able resource use.

In addition, biodiversity is asubject of international concern.Because human activities havedeleteriously affected both ter-restrial and marine habitats,there is concern that the diver-sity of species occupying thesehabitats will decline, perhapseven leading to extinction ofsome species.

Much pioneering work on ma-rine habitats and their role inhosting myriads of species,some of which support fisher-ies, has been done in the UnitedStates, the United Kingdom,France, Canada, Australia andNew Zealand. However, suchresearch has just begun in theSouth Pacific.

For example, since 1991, NewCaledonia has been carryingout an EEZ (Exclusive EconomicZone) survey program, ZoNeCo,aimed at evaluating its potentialmarine resources using swathmapping surveys, physicaloceanographic measurementsand exploratory fishing.

The main objectives of the con-ference will be to:

1. inform participants ofpresent-day methodologiesto study marine habitats,fisheries and biodiversity;

2. interpret case histories rela-tive to South Pacific inter-ests, demonstrating howthese techniques have beenapplied to marine habitats(bays, lagoons, coral reefs,shelf and slope environ-

ments, seamounts andridges);

3. identify crucial habitats andresources;

4. propose a training compo-nent, especially for South Pa-cific nationals, on such tech-niques as ROVs (RemotelyOperated Vehicles), sub-mersibles, acoustic surveys,GIS (Geographic Informa-tion Systems), GPS (GlobalPositioning Systems), etc.,with the idea of developingthese further in future ses-sions; and

5. establish the parameters forhabitat monitoring systemsto assist in management andsustainability of resources,giving consideration to theimplementation of the Glo-bal Ocean Observing Sys-tem (GOOS) in the region.

Below is a list of the topics thatwill be covered in the Confer-ence:

FOCUSES

1. Lagoons and bays;

2. Shallow reefs;

3. Deep reefs;

4. Shelf and slope;

5. Seamounts and ridges; and

6. Deep-sea trenches and can-yons.

TECHNOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY

TO ASSESS HABITATS AND RE-SOURCES

1. Geophysical techniques (sub-bottom profiling, bathymetry,side scan sonar, etc.);

2. Direct observations (snor-kelling, SCUBA (Self-Con-


17


tained Underwater Breath-ing Apparatus), DOVs (DiverOperated Vehicles), Mannedsubmersibles, etc.);

3. Remote sensing (ROVs, sat-ellite images such as theSPOT HRV, aerial photogra-phy, etc.);

4. Optical imaging;

5. Hydro-acoustics;

6. Destructive sampling (trawls,cores, dredges, etc.); and

7. Physical oceanographic andwater quality measurementtools (currents, salinity, tem-perature, oxygen, nutrients,chlorophyll, etc.).

MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVA-TION OF HABITATS AND RESOURCES

1. Characterisation and quan-tification of habitats;

2. Life history studies of domi-nant, habitat-specific organ-isms;

3. Use of habitats by organisms(food, shelter, movements,etc.);

4. Sustainability of resources;

5. Effects of natural and anthro-pogenic impacts (extraction,noxious species, harmful al-gal blooms, sedimentation,erosion, predator outbreaks,etc.);

6. Harvest refugia; and

7. Social, political, and eco-nomic considerations.

INTERPRETATION AND ANALYTICAL

TECHNIQUES

1. Geographical InformationSystems (GIS);

2. Computer interfacing andanalysis;

3. Mathematical modelling;

4. Visualisation techniques;

5. Environmental impact analy-ses; and

6. Global Ocean ObservingSystem (GOOS).

For more details on this confer-ence, please contact:

Dr Jean-Marie Auzende,IFREMER c/o ORSTOM,

B.P. A5, 98848, Noumea Cedex,New Caledonia,Fax: (687) 264326;

Phone: (687) 260759;E-mail: [email protected]

AQUACULTURE WITHOUT CAGES OR NETS

In order to offset the depletionof inshore resources, the Hydro-M Environnement Company,with its headquarters in Tou-louse (France), is proposing ascheme inspired by a Japanesemodel to culture fish withoutusing cages.

The artificially-bred fish are re-leased near man-made reefsformed from boat wrecks onwhich an ecosystem becomesestablished. In order to ensurethat the fingerlings stay neartheir new home, they are con-ditioned for three months in thehatchery by means of the sys-tematic transmission of a low-or medium-frequency soundsignal at feeding time.

When they are released as adultsand hear the signal again, theyassociate it with a reward andso stay near the sound source.

All that needs to be done is tomoor buoys emitting the samesignal in the rearing area, anddistribute a bit of food once aweek in order to maintain thereflex.

In comparison to traditionalaquaculture, all the costs relatedto cages, and most for feed, areeliminated. The flesh of fishraised in the open water is alsohigher in quality.

In order to assess the economicviability of this project, Hydro-M Environnement is preparing atest of this method using bass(Dicentrarchus labrax) for Au-tumn 1996 in collaboration withThomson, the Spanish Oceano-graphic Institute and the ItalianNaval Automation Institute.

However, the approval of localfishing agencies and the Mari-

time Affairs Agency still has tobe obtained. The site selectedis a 1600 sq. n.mi. bay south ofArcachon which opens onto thegulf of Gascony in the AtlanticOcean—a natural passage forfish, which could become anarea of high productivity.

(Source: La Recherche 287, May1996)


18


NEW ZEALAND TO PUSH OUT LIMITS

New Zealand is getting set todramatically increase its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.It has started on a NZ$ 40 mil-lion seabed survey in the oceanssurrounding the country in or-der to claim potential lucrativemarine, oil and mineral resourceswell beyond the present EEZ.

The project, expected to take sixyears, began with an explora-tion in waters to the north andwest of the country in 1996.Surveys should ultimately beused to increase New Zealand’sjurisdiction to the outer limits ofits continental shelf.

Outer limits of the zone couldnudge—perhaps even over-lap—Australian and Pacific Is-land nation boundaries.

(Source: Fishing News International)

SEAWEED EXPORTS ARE BECOMING IMPORTANT IN KIRIBATI

Seaweed cultivation is nowKiribati’s fourth largest incomeearner after copra, sea cucum-bers and ornamental fish. A re-port by New Zealand’s Minis-try of Foreign Affairs and Tradesaid that seaweed farming hasbeen established on nine ofKiribati’s outer islands.

New Zealand has investednearly US$ 950,000 on the projectand helped set up the Atoll Sea-weed Company, which coordi-nates the buying and exporting.

This industry already has trans-formed the economy of someislands. On Tabuaeran (Fan-ning) Island, income from sea-weed has displaced copra tobecome the single biggest earner,

while it is close to rivalling copraon Kiritimati (Christmas) Islandwhere there are now 137 regis-tered seaweed producers.

Seaweed is used to manufacturecarrageenan, which is used infood, cosmetics and pharma-ceuticals. World demand for thevariety produced in Kiribati isabout 80,000 t. Production in1995 was 705 t, a 78 per cent in-crease over 1994. It was ex-pected that more than 1,000 twould be harvested in 1996.

Farmers receive 32 cents US perkg for dried seaweed, which isconsolidated on Tarawa andshipped in containers to Den-mark. The Kiribati governmenthas a five-year contract with a

Danish company for all the sea-weed the country can produce.Exports earnings in 1994 wereUS$ 5.9 million.

The method of farming is to tiecuttings of fresh seaweed to cul-ture ropes that lie off the seabedon a structure of ropes and posts.The ropes are harvested afterfive to seven weeks. Farm sizesvary, the largest ones managingmore than 4,000 individualplants. New Zealand’s fundingfor fiscal year 1996–1997 will gointo a seaweed press, truck,scales, pallet lifter and for build-ing warehouse.

(Source: Pacific Magazine)

FISHING AND FARMING COMBINE IN AUSTRALIA

Australian boats are towingtuna for fattening worth aroundUS$ 2.8 million when they pullback cages from the fishinggrounds to ongrowing sites inBoston Bay, a few miles fromPort Lincoln (see SPC FisheriesNewsletter #76)

Purse seiners of between 110and 120 ft (33.5 and 36.5 m)operate with chum, feed andtow boats in the fishing-to-farming operation which canlast from December to Marcheach year.

Schools of Southern bluefintuna are spotted from the airand pilots direct catchers totuna of a suitable size for on-growing. They do not target bigor small fish. Purse seiners aremainly seeking Southern blue-fin schools of only 30 to 50 t tomaintain quality and, generally,two or three shots are made tostock each cage. A chum boatworks to keep the fish near thesurface so that the seine can beset easily. Catches are thentransferred from the net into thecage via gates.

The purse seines of 700 to 800 mlong by 80 fathoms deep(146 m) are not dried up afterpursuing, but the cage is towedinto position to meet the netwhich is left to drift. Purserscannot use side thrusters dur-ing their operations as theycould damage the cage netting.

Between two and four diversare sent down into the seine andtuna are guided out through anet gate and into the cagethrough a transfer gate withoutbeing touched.


19


Then the netting forming thegate in the purse seine is clippedback into position on rings andthe cage gate is closed. Oftentuna do not even break the sur-face while in the seine and thenet-to-cage transfer operationcan be completed in just 25minutes. Cage-maker GraemeJohnson outlines ‘that the im-portant thing is to feed the tunaas soon as the gate is closed.Then they are a little more set-tled for the tow.’

Obviously, with such a valu-able cargo, a careful watch hasto be kept on both the conditionof the tuna and the towing cage.Any weak tuna are spotted andharvested by divers who enterthe cage daily as it is beinghauled for home at between 1.5to 2 knots—often throughheavy seas. Divers also inspectthe cage for damage during thisoften tedious towing time.

And towing lines are necessar-ily long so that the propellerwash does not disturb cagedtuna. Tows can last 400 km and14 days, according to the seasonand ground. Mortality whentowing seems to be very low astuna are ‘tough’ fish, althoughthey need careful handling.

Originally, the industry at PortLincoln used Japanese cages.Then experiments were madewith cages made out of flexiblemedium density polyethylenepiping with a compressed foamcore. Cages are delivered to theoperating area in kits and thepipes are welded together onsite.

It takes several days to assem-ble the cage, a 160 m circumfer-ence model including towingequipment costing aboutUS$ 140,000.

The early cages were hexago-nal, but they are now a longhexagonal shape. According toGraeme Johnson ‘they look likea boat and travel like a boat’.Flume tanks test were carriedout to perfect the design andsome 27 km of twine goes intothe construction of the cage netjust to hang the ropes.

Six-inch stretch mesh (15.2 cm)is used as 8-inch mesh (20.3 cm)damaged the faces of tunawhich swam into the netting.The tow rope is eight-plait of64 mm diameter specified towithstand the 7.5 t drag at1.5 knots towing speed.

‘We use all floating rope. Westarted with steel ropes, but theysank,’ says Graeme Johnson.Vessels of between 600 and800 hp are needed for towing asthey are operating through six-metre seas with three-metrehigh waves on top. Often, theyare prawn boats filling in be-tween seasons.

(Source: Fishing News International)


20


DOCTORS FARM FISHFOR INSULIN

Fish guts may seem an unlikelysource of organ transplants forhumans, but Canadian scien-tists are trying to turn geneti-cally engineered fish into do-nors for the cells in the pancreasthat could cure childhood dia-betes. If the approach is a suc-cess, the scaly organ donorscould mean an end to daily in-jections for millions of children.

When a healthy person eats sugar,cells in the islets of Langerhanssecrete the hormone insulin.Insulin allows tissue such asmuscle to take up the sugar. Butin the most serious form of dia-betes, which begins in child-hood, the islets are destroyedand patients survive on dailyinjections of insulin. But injec-tions cannot mimic the finelytuned response of normal isletsto blood sugar and fluctuatinglevels of sugar and insulin even-tually damage diabetic’s eyes,hearts, nerves and kidneys. Ittakes three human pancreas tosupply enough islets for onetransplant. There are fewer than10,000 pancreas donors in NorthAmerica each year, and 3 mil-lion diabetics.

The supplyproblem could in

theory be solved byusing animal donors, and

the most widely studied poten-tial donor so far is the pig. ButWright says that even if testsshow that pig islets are suitable,supplying enough cells will bea huge problem. ‘To get the 14million islet cells needed for ahuman transplant, you need tenpigs. To treat 10 000 diabetics ayear, you need a million pigs,’he says. The animals wouldhave to be reared in sterile con-ditions, for two years. If eachpig is given four square metresof space, that equates to 200 pighouses of 20 000 square metres,to treat just 10 000 people. ‘Thecosts would be astronomical,’says Wright.

Enter the tilapia, a freshwaterfish widely farmed in the trop-ics. Unlike pigs, fish can be raisedcheaply at high density in smallspaces. Tilapia could also solvesome of the other major prob-lems with the cross-species trans-plantation. The first of these isfinding a way to stop the pa-tient’s immune system attack-ing the animal tissue withoutresorting to immunosuppressantdrugs.

Scientists have previously trans-planted rat and mouse isletsbetween the two species with-out using drugs by encapsulat-ing the islets in gel. Wright’steam uses gels derived fromseaweed, called alginates. Theirpores let sugar and oxygen inand insulin out, but exclude thecells and large molecules of theimmune system.

In theory, encapsulated isletscould be given to young diabet-ics with little or no immuno-suppression, says Wright, butblood vessels cannot grow intothe capsules, and many trans-planted cells suffocate.

Tilapia live in warm ponds withlow levels of oxygen, so theircells need only one-fifth of theoxygen that human cells need.So they should survive encap-sulation.

The other big bonus with tilapiais that the fish have two pancre-ases, one for digestive enzymesand the other solely for insulin.Because one pancreas is basi-cally an agglomeration of islets,it is much easier to isolate thecells from other tissue. For hu-man or pig islets the extractionprocess costs A$ 3000, which is90 per cent of the cost of humantransplants.

Wright’s team has transplantedfish islets into mice and rats,where they successfully pro-duced insulin in response tochanging blood sugar levels.But there is still one big obsta-cle. Fish insulin works poorlybecause it differs from the hu-man hormone by 17 amino ac-ids. Pig insulin is only oneamino acid different.

Wright’s colleague Bill Pohajdakhas cloned and modified thetilapia insulin gene to producehuman insulin and the team isnow injecting the gene intotilapia eggs. Wright says thatprevious experience with ge-netically modified fish suggeststhat with enough injecting andscreening, some of the animalswill express the human gene insperm or eggs. The team thenhopes to breed a stable line offish that produce only humaninsulin.

(Source: New Scientist)


21

A B S T R A C T S A N D R E V I E W S

ICFMaP PUBLISHES REVIEW OF COASTAL FISHERIESIN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

A major review of coastal fish-eries in the South Pacific regionwas published in October inOceanography and Marine Biol-ogy: an Annual Review (Vol. 34,395–531, 1996).

This article was initially pre-pared as a draft by Paul Dalzelland Tim Adams for the SPC–FFA Workshop on the Manage-ment of South Pacific InshoreFisheries, convened in Noumeain June–July 1995.

The draft was revised with fur-ther input from Dr NicholasPolunin of the Centre for Tropi-cal Coastal Management Stud-ies (CTCMS) of the Universityof Newcastle upon Tyne inEngland.

Like ICFMaP, the CTCMS hasalso been a recipient of fundingfrom the British Overseas De-velopment Administration, andDr Polunin and co-workers haveconducted extensive researchon fisheries in the Pacific Islandsand elsewhere in the tropics.

The review, entitled CoastalFisheries of the Pacific Islands,covers most forms of fishingand harvesting activities in thecoastal zone and is broadly di-vided by the following resourcecategories: reef fish, deep slopefish, large and small pelagics,estuarine fish, echinoderms,molluscs and crustaceans.

The authors describe the fishingmethods employed for thesedifferent resources, present in-formation on catch rates andcatch composition, summariseresearch on the biology andstock assessment and the socio-economic aspects of each fish-ery.

Following these descriptionsand summaries estimates aregiven of the total fish and inver-tebrate harvest from the coastalzones of the Pacific Islands. Theauthors finish by pointing todirections for future researchand suggesting how future so-cial, economic and politicalevents will have an impact onPacific coastal zone fisheries.

This review complementsNearshore Marine Resources ofthe South Pacific, a volume ofmainly biological profiles on thevarious coastal fisheries re-sources of the Pacific publishedin 1993 by the Forum FisheriesAgency. In this latest review,greater emphasis is given to thedescriptions of the fisheries,rather than the biology of thetarget species.

However, the literature of Pa-cific Island stock assessmentand fisheries biology is summa-rised in considerable detail. Thearticle has allowed the authorsto bring to the attention of thefisheries science community inthe region and beyond the ex-tensive volume of ‘grey’ litera-ture on coastal fisheries in theSouth Pacific, as well as themore conventional publishedreports and scientific papers.

Reprints of this review will bedistributed to fisheries admin-istrations in all the SPC mem-ber countries.

(Source: Paul Dalzell, WPRFMC)


22

Longline fishing vessels comein a range of sizes, have differ-ent deck layouts, are made fromeither steel, aluminium, fibre-glass or wood, and are equippedwith a variety of machinery andfishing gear.

Choosing a suitable vessel, ei-ther new or second-hand,presents a plethora of problemsto anyone interested in enteringinto commercial tuna longlinefishing. Costly mistakes can bemade when selecting a vessel.The wrong choice can meanfailure just as the right choicecan increase the chances for asuccessful venture.

Furthermore, the ‘right’ boat inone fishery may not be the mostsuitable boat in another area.Local sea conditions and re-source availability, technicalexpertise of prospective crewmembers, and land-based infra-structure should also be consid-ered as they all have a bearingon suitability of a vessel.

The whole idea of fishing is tomake money. If the cost of avessel is so great that no returncan be made on the investment,then the ‘best’ boat may not bethe most suitable boat.

VESSEL SIZE AND RANGE

Tuna longline trips (for chilledtuna) can last anywhere from oneto three weeks. After three weeksthe first caught fish will start tospoil and will be of little value.

However, for safety purposes avessel should have the capabil-ity to steam for about fourweeks without refuelling. Typi-cally, a vessel has to steam forseveral days to get to the fish-ing grounds, fish for about tensets, and then return to port.

Tuna are highly migratory, soduring any one trip vesselmovements of one or two daysduration may have to be madeto follow the fish, and even af-ter each set smaller movementsare usually made to adjust forcurrents and drift.

In areas where commerciallongline fishing is just startingand the resource is very abun-dant, the above may not neces-sarily be true, but following thefirst few ‘gold rush’ seasons theresource will start to feel the pres-sure of fishing and vessels willhave to range further and fur-ther from home ports to catchfull loads. It may be all right tostart out with a ‘mini’ longliner(15 m [50 ft], or less) but in thelong run it would prove to beunsuitable as it could not adaptto a changing situation.

When considering vessel sizeand other parameters, both suit-ability and versatility need to beconsidered. A versatile vesselcould adapt to other fisherieslike albacore trolling in thesoutheast Pacific, and wouldhave a higher resale value if itwas adaptable to fish in areaswhere the EEZ is bigger andlongline vessels need to have alonger range.

A vessel of 18 to 23 m (60 to75 ft) length overall and of 50 to80 gross registered tonnes(GRT) with a fuel capacity thatwould allow it to steam for fourweeks without refuelling wouldprobably be suitable in mostsituations and versatile enoughto adapt to changes.

A suitable 20 m (66 ft) longlinevessel would be equipped witha main engine of probably notmore than 300 or 400 horse-power (220 to 300 kW) and agenerator with an output ofabout 25 to 30 kW. A vessel sopowered could probably beexpected to burn about 900 li-tres (250 US gallons) of fuel per24 hours of operation.

Therefore it would need to havea fuel capacity of at least 25,000litres or 25 t* (7,000 US gallons).At 10 knots (maximum speednecessary for a longliner) thiswould give it an operating rangeof over 6,000 nautical miles(11,000 km).

These are only the very basicparameters, however, and thereare several more things to con-sider. The next most importantsize parameter of a longlinevessel is fish hold capacity (as-suming beam and depth corre-spond to length, i.e., a 20 m [66foot] vessel with a beam of about5 m [16.5 feet] and a depth ofabout 2.5 m [8.25 feet]).

NOTES ON LONGLINEVESSEL PARAMETERS FOR

PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

by Stephen Beverly,South Pacific CommissionNoumea, New Caledonia

* Actually one tonne of fuel is not equal to one tonne of tank volume. Fuel is less dense than water so one tonne of fuel mighthave a volume of 1100 litres or so. The specific gravity of fuel depends upon its temperature so this number varies consid-erably. For this report, however, one tonne of fuel will be considered to occupy approximately one tonne of tank volume.


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NOTES ON LONGLINE VESSEL PARAMETERS FOR PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES

If a vessel is capable of makingat least ten sets of 1,500 hooksduring a trip it would expect, onaverage, to catch about 7.5 t ofall species of fish (target speciesand by-catch). This is based ona rough Pacific average CPUEof 0.5 kg/hook (50 kg/100hooks) for tuna longline vessels.

Obviously, fewer fish will becaught on some trips and dur-ing some times of the year, andmore fish will be caught duringother trips, particularly duringthe peak fishing seasons. Asmuch as 15 t of fish could becaught on ten sets during onetrip.

Therefore, for a longline vesselto be both suitable and versatileit should be capable of carryingup to 15 t of chilled tuna and by-catch. The actual size of the fishhold(s) depends largely on thetype of chilling system used.Refrigerated sea water (RSW)systems and slurry systemsneed about 2 t (1 t = 1 m3) ofhold space to chill one tonne offish while ‘ice’ boats need any-where from 3 to 5 t of fish holdspace to chill one tonne of fish(depending on the configura-tion of the fish hold).

Hold space is also needed tostore ample bait for ten sets—about 1.5 to 2 t. If live bait isused then holds need to beadaptable to holding circulatingsea water.

Other less obvious but equallyimportant parameters includefresh water holding capacityand crew complement. A ves-sel that stays at sea for up tofour weeks should be able tohold sufficient fresh water forfour weeks with a reserve.

A typical crew complement fora tuna longliner would be in therange of four to eight people, in-cluding captain (in some opera-

tions the captain serves as engi-neer and fish master). Each manon a fishing vessel would be ex-pected to consume about 25 li-tres (6.5 US gallons) of freshwater per day. For a crew of six(average) this would add up toover 4000 litres, or 4 t (1200 USgallons) for a four-week timeperiod (three weeks plus oneweek’s reserve).

The trend throughout the re-gion is for longline vessels to berequired to take along a scien-tific or compliance observer oncertain trips. Ample berthingand fresh water capacity needsto be considered for such con-tingencies. A suitable and ver-satile long-line vessel shouldhave a crew complement of sixto eight persons and shouldhave a freshwater capacity of atleast 700 litres (200 US gallons)per person. In lieu of a 4 t freshwater tank, a vessel could beoutfitted with a desalinator ca-pable of producing sufficientvolumes of fresh water.

HULL MATERIAL

Although there are a few goodwooden boats in service in thelongline fishery, most vesselsare either steel, fibreglass, oraluminium. Each of these threematerials has its advantages anddisadvantages, and the choice islargely a matter of preference.However, a case can be statedfor each.

Steel vessels are probably themost versatile as they are rela-tively easy to fabricate and re-pair. Steel is also very forgivingto captains who make naviga-tion errors and miss the passthrough the reef. Steel is malle-able and tends to dent or bendrather than crack or break as aresult of collisions. At sea re-pairs and gear adjustments canbe done if a welding machineand oxyacetylene set are part of

the boat’s tools and machinery.Most shipyards are set up towork with steel and steel is rela-tively inexpensive and availablealmost everywhere. On the otherhand, steel rusts and steel boatsneed constant upkeep to pre-vent them from rusting away.

Fibreglass vessels come as fi-bre-glassed plywood, fibreglassreinforced plastic (FRP, GRP),or fibreglassed foam (compos-ites, foam sandwich, etc.) or acombination of these materials.The main advantage to fibre-glass is that it is relatively main-tenance free. There is no chip-ping and painting, no rust, nocorrosion.

Fibreglass is also fairly easy towork with and small repairsand modifications can be doneeasily with materials that areavailable in most places (resin,catalyst, and glass cloth or mat).

Fibreglass is also compatiblewith almost any other mate-rial—steel, aluminium, brass,wood, silicon, rubber, etc.). Themain disadvantages to fibre-glass are that it is flammable,that it cracks, and that it canhave a tendency to absorb wa-ter (osmosis). Osmosis occursparticularly when poor work-manship is involved in layingup the fibreglass or when foam-fibreglass composites are madewithout using pressure.

Under these conditions fibre-glass and composites (fibreglassand foam) can become porous.Water soaks through the fibre-glass and into the foam. Asidefrom that, if a fibreglass vesselcollides with another vessel orwith the reef, major hull dam-age can occur—the hull can beholed quite easily compared tosteel.

The worst case, however, wouldbe a fire on a fibreglass vessel.


24


Once resin and foam (in thepresence of fuel oil, hydraulicoil and motor oil) are ignited itis very difficult to put out theflames. Burning resin and poly-urethane foam (as in foamsandwich vessels) give off toxicfumes that can be lethal. Steeland aluminium, on the otherhand, do not burn, althoughthere can be fires on board steelor aluminium vessels.

Aluminium has two main ad-vantages as a hull material.One, it is light weight and thusan aluminium vessel is morefuel efficient than a similar sizedsteel vessel. Two, aluminium,like fibreglass, is relativelymaintenance free.

Aluminium, although it cor-rodes under certain conditions,does not rust. There is no chip-ping or painting to be done, andoften aluminium vessels are notpainted at all above the waterline. An annual wash downwith phosphoric acid is all thatis usually needed.

There are two main disadvan-tages to aluminium vessels, how-ever. One, marine grade alu-minium, unlike steel, is not verymalleable and tends to crackunder extreme stress, as duringan encounter with the reef oranother vessel. Two, aluminiumis difficult to work with and ex-pensive as compared to steel.

A special welding machine isneeded, along with a highly-trained welder, to work withaluminium. Most small ship-yards and slipways do notwork with aluminium so majorrepairs or modifications couldbe very costly.

Aluminium plate is also notavailable in most places. Fur-thermore, aluminium does notget along very well with othermetals. If stainless steel fittings

are used on an aluminium ves-sel, for instance, care must betaken to isolate the two metalsfrom each other with rubber orsilicon. If they are not isolatedand in the presence of sea wa-ter, electrolysis will take placeand the aluminium will corrodeaway and be reduced to a whitepowder.

Lastly, aluminium is a verygood conductor of heat whichmeans that heat can be easilytransferred from machinery tocrew’s quarters or the fish hold.In the tropics, aluminium deckscan get quite hot. This not onlycauses discomfort to the crewbut can affect quality of fishlanded on the deck.

All in all, steel is probably thepreferred material for a longlinevessel unless the vessel will beoperating in a very remote lo-cality with a crew that may notkeep up on regular hull main-tenance. In that case, fibreglass,because of its ease of mainte-nance, would be the preferredhull material. It may be wise onfibreglass vessels to have morethan the necessary minimumnumber of fire fighting devices.

HULL CONFIGURATION

The best hull for longline fish-ing is a deep displacement typehull with a single (hard) chine.Planing or semi-planing hullsor hulls with round or multiplechines should be avoided. Thesetype of vessels are more suitedto coastal (near shore) fisheries,

such as the Australian westcoast cray fishery. It is also goodto have a skeg with a foot plateand pintle bearing for the rud-der rather than shaft struts anda free-standing rudder.

A smooth, uninterrupted linefrom stem to rudder is the idealas there should be few placesfor the mainline to get caughton during hauling of thelongline. Keel coolers and trans-ducers should be on the portside if possible and all zinc an-odes should be mounted so thatthey will not snag the mainline.Bilge keels (roller chocks) shouldbe avoided.

The other main consideration iswhere to put the wheelhouse.Most Asian longline vesselshave stern houses. There areseveral advantages to having astern house. One, the vessel op-erator has a clear view of alldeck operations, including ma-chinery, during hauling. He canclearly see the mainline comingup, and he can monitor all crewactivities as well, including fishhandling and chilling proce-dures.

Two, all fish holds are forwardof the engine room and shafttunnel on a stern-house vessel.This allows more room for holdspace and also reduces the trans-fer of heat from machinery tofish hold. It is easier to make thefish hold water tight if there isno shaft tunnel running throughit. Another advantage to havingthe machinery behind the holds


25


is that access to the shaft pack-ing gland (stuffing box) is usu-ally via the engine room, whereit can be easily viewed and re-paired as necessary. On a for-ward-house vessel it is oftenvery difficult to gain access tothe packing gland (to tightenthe gland or add packing) whileat sea fishing.

The shaft tunnel on a forward-house vessel is usually underthe main fish hold and thepacking gland may be buriedunder layers of fish and ice,which would make monitoringand repairing difficult. Thiscould be critical during anemergency.

Lastly, a short tail shaft as on astern-house vessel is less expen-sive than a long shaft as on aforward-house vessel. Often,on forward-house vessels, twoshafts are necessary: an inter-mediate shaft that runs fromthe gear box coupling to justforward of the packing gland;and a tail shaft that exits to thepropeller. Additional bearings(Babbit bearings) are usually fit-ted along the way to supportthis extra weight. A long shaftwould add considerable cost toa vessel as compared to a shortshaft.

There are many forward wheel-house vessels in longline fisher-ies in the Pacific, however. Mostof these started out as some-thing else, like shrimp draggers(prawn trawlers) or net boats, inwhich case a forward housemight be advantageous.

The main advantage for a for-ward house to longline fishingis that the crew is out of theweather. Forward-house ves-sels are also probably betterduring setting operations, as theline can run unobstructed fromreel or baskets to the stern,where baiting takes place.

Many operators of forward-house longline vessels haveadded an outside station on theback deck, usually on the after-bulkhead of the house, wherethe operator can both drive thevessel and control the haulingof the mainline and the removalof branchlines simultaneously.(Hauling is usually done fromthe starboard side so that thevessel operator can have a clearview of the so called ‘dangerzone’ which is the area aroundhis vessel from dead ahead to11 1/4 degrees aft of the beamon the starboard side, or ninepoints off the starboard bow. In-ternational Rules prohibit onevessel from crossing the portbow of another vessel).

FISH HOLD(S) AND CHILLING

SYSTEM

There are several options forfish-hold configuration andchilling systems. Fresh-chilledsashimi-grade tuna can be pro-duced by icing the fish in lay-ers of crushed or flake (or shell)ice, by immersing the fish in aslurry made up of crushed iceand sea water, or by immersingthe fish in refrigerated sea wa-ter (RSW) or a mix of sea waterand fresh water.

The common goal of all thesesystems is to reduce the bodytemperature of the fish to 0°C(32°F) and to keep the fish at ornear this temperature for theduration of the fishing trip.

Each system has its advantagesand disadvantages and thechoice of system has a directbearing on the type of fishhold(s) a vessel would have andthe type of refrigeration ma-chinery necessary to supportthe function of the fish hold(s).The availability of land-basedinfrastructure and market de-mands also play a role in choiceof chilling systems.

Icing fish has several advan-tages over RSW and slurry sys-tems. One, the product is usu-ally better than fish that havebeen chilled in a liquid system.Properly-iced fish do not comeinto contact with other fish orwith the structure of the fishhold. There is little skin damageto iced fish as compared to fishchilled in a liquid.

Damage can occur, however, ifice is not broken up into veryfine pieces or if the starting layerof ice is not of sufficient depth.Iced fish will also keep longerthan fish stored in a liquid sys-tem. Iced fish (tuna) can be keptas long as three weeks and stillbe marketable as export-gradefish. RSW or slurry fish start tobleach out (soak-up water) af-ter one to two weeks.

Furthermore, iced fish requireonly one large fish hold that isusually divided into separatebins with removable boards.RSW and slurry systems re-quire that the vessel have sev-eral fish holds up to a maxi-mum size of about 2 t each. Ifthe holds are too large the fishwill move around, especially inrough weather, and becomedamaged.


26


Ice boats, if there is sufficient iceavailable from a shore facility,do not need an on-board refrig-eration system. This is also trueof slurry systems but not true ofRSW systems. Ice boats orslurry boats could have an on-board flake ice machine or theholds could be refrigerated as asupplement to the ice in theholds, but this is not alwaysnecessary. RSW boats, by con-trast, are wholly dependent onon-board machinery (generatorand refrigeration system).

The main advantage that RSWand slurry systems have overicing is that they are less labourintensive. Digging graves in theice is hard work and requires acertain degree of skill and usu-ally has to be done twice foreach day’s catch—once for pre-chilling in a slaughter bin andagain the following day in oneof the main bins in the fish hold.RSW and slurry fish are merelydropped into the tank after clean-ing (bleeding, gilling and gut-ting, bagging). Some vessels usea combination of slurry for pre-chilling and ice for storing fish.

However, this requires that thevessel have at least two tanks,or holds. Multiple tank systemshave the advantage, however,that since there are several tankson the vessel as opposed to onemain fish hold, at least one ofthese tanks can be used for livebait storage; or in the case ofRSW boats, supplementaryfresh water or fuel supply.

One disadvantage to RSW sys-tems is that temperature varia-tions are more likely to occurthan with ice or slurry systems.Another disadvantage to bothRSW and slurry systems is thatfish must be bagged in eitherplastic body bags or muttoncloth (gauze) tubes to preventskin damage. This adds to theoperating expenses.

Notwithstanding the prefer-ences of the captain, fish mas-ter, crew, and fish buyers, theselection of a chilling system ismostly dependent on availableinfrastructure. If there is suffi-cient shore-side ice available,then icing would probably bethe best choice.

Second to this would be a slurrysystem. Neither of these sys-tems depend on on-board ma-chinery (except for pumps to re-move melt water). If there is noshore-side ice available, or if itis too expensive or the supplyis unreliable, then some sort ofon-board refrigeration systemwould be necessary. This couldbe an on-board flake ice ma-chine for icing or for a slurrysystem, or an RSW system.

The main disadvantages to hav-ing on-board refrigeration sys-tems are that initial capital costsare higher and product qualityis wholly dependent on keep-ing on-board machinery opera-tional. Consider the followingscenario:

A company has a choice of fiveice boats supported by a shore-side, five tonne/day flake-icemachine or five RSW boatsand no shore-side ice facility.Which should they choose?The ice boats would requirethat only one piece of refrigera-tion machinery be looked afteras opposed to five pieces of ma-chinery. Furthermore, the icemachine would be on landwhere it could be monitored 24hours a day by one qualifiedtechnician. The choice of RSW

boats would require that thecompany have five qualifiedtechnicians and each of thevery expensive machineswould be subjected to a harshenvironment far away fromparts stores and support infra-structure.

Capital expenditure for five iceboats would be substantiallyless than for five RSW boats—only one fish hold as opposedto several on each vessel, and norefrigeration system needed.However, ice boats with no re-frigeration system are whollydependent on a reliable and af-fordable shore-side ice supply.

With every system of chillingfish it is important to have well-insulated fish holds. Fish holdsshould have at least 5 inches(13 cm) of polyurethane foaminsulation. This may have to bethicker on a bulkhead sharedwith the engine room or a ma-chinery space. Hatches shouldalso be well-insulated and onsome vessels additional plugsare necessary (insulated hatchcover that fits underneath thedeck hatch).

MACHINERY

If a longline vessel is going tobe equipped with some sort ofrefrigeration system there areseveral options to choose from.Ice machines can make eithersea water ice, fresh water ice, orboth. If a fresh water ice ma-chine is selected (fresh water iceis better as it doesn’t freeze thefish) then the vessel would prob-ably also need a water maker,


27


or desalinator. It takes a tonneof water to make a tonne of ice.A one tonne per day ice ma-chine would soon use up all ofthe ship’s supply of fresh waterif the vessel did not have adesalinator. Flake ice machinesusually use R-22 refrigerant(Freon).

Sea water in RSW systems canbe cooled by chillers with theevaporators in a remote chillertank away from the fish holdsor it can be cooled by having theevaporators installed in the fishholds either as coils or as plates.Temperature is controlled bythermostatic expansion valves.

Most RSW vessels use R-22 re-frigerant (R-12 refrigerant isbeing phased out world-wideto be replaced by A-134) and R-502 is very expensive. R-717,ammonia, is usually only usedon freezer vessels). The com-pressor for either an ice ma-chine or an RSW system can berun from an electric motor, abelt drive from the main engine,or a hydraulic motor.

The most important piece ofmachinery on a fishing vessel,however, is the main engine.There are a multitude of brands,configurations, horsepower,and types to choose from. Themost important considerationsare initial cost, fuel efficiency,dependability, and availabilityof parts and service.

It is not necessary to have twomain engines on a longliner, noris it necessary to have an enginerated at over 400 horsepower (Ageneral formula to use is threehorsepower for every tonne ofdisplacement—one horsepowerequals approximately 0.75 Kw).

High-powered vessels capableof speeds in excess of 20 knotsare more suited to coastal fish-eries where trip duration is rela-

tively short, i.e., one-to-threedays. Generally speaking, fourstroke six cylinder in-line natu-rally or turbo-aspirated dieselengines are preferable to eightor twelve cylinder superchargedV8 or V12 engines; popularname brand engines and gearboxes with local distributors oragents are more suitable thanexotic brands; dry exhaust sys-tems are more suitable than wetexhaust systems; electric start-ers are more trouble-free thanair or hydraulic starters; andsimple, unsophisticated enginesetups are preferable to ‘hightech’ systems with lots of ‘bellsand whistles’.

Engine start and stop buttonsshould be on the engine, or atleast in the engine room, andnot in the wheelhouse or on theflybridge. This necessitates atleast two trips into the engineroom daily and hopefullywould mean that sump oil lev-els, engine coolant levels, gearbox oil, and bilge water levelswould be checked.

Cable controls (e.g. Morse Ca-bles), for engine throttle andmarine gear shifting are prefer-able to electronic or hydrauliccontrols as they are easier tomaintain or replace. Good enginechoices would be Caterpillar(USA), Gardner (UK), Yanmar(Japan) or Baudouin (France).

Twin Disc is probably the mostpopular marine gear box.

However, there are many othergood brands of marine dieselengines and marine gear boxes.One important consideration isavailability of parts and service.Before an engine and gear boxare selected it would be good totry to identify sources for spareslike fuel and oil filters, injectors,starter motors and alternators,and rebuild kits for pumps andcylinder heads. If these basicitems cannot be accessed then itmay be best to find a more suit-able engine for which parts andservice are readily available.

One very important piece ofmachinery, especially in thetropics, is an engine room ex-haust fan. Ambient engine roomtemperatures can become quitehot during hauling of the long-line gear when the main enginemay be operating at peak RPMand the hydraulic pump oper-ating at peak output.

Exhaust fans should be mountedsomewhere near the exhauststack so that hot air is expelledwhile cool air is being drawn infrom a vent somewhere in theforward end of the engineroom. An on-off switch for theexhaust fan should be mountedin the wheelhouse so the fan canbe switched off in case of fire.

Propellers should be fixed pitch,not variable pitched—and noz-zles are not necessary. Shaftpacking glands should be thesimple, water-cooled-type us-ing Teflon or graphite-typepacking and not oil-filled, al-though grease fittings on shaftglands are probably a good idea.

Another important piece ofmachinery on a longline vesselis the hydraulic system. Themost suitable hydraulic systemis one that is the most depend-


28


able. Care should be taken sothat the output of the hydrau-lic pump matches the mini-mum ratings of the hydraulicmotors on the reel and line set-ter (indicated by pressure—inpounds per square inch, PSI;Bars, atmospheres; or Kilo-pascals, 0.01 atmosphere; andcapacity in GPM—gallons perminute or litres per minute).

A typical hydraulic system foroperating a longline reel mightbe rated at 1500 PSI and 10GPM. A hydraulic pump thatruns from a power take off (PTO)on the main engine is probablythe best choice. Electrically-powered hydraulic systems arefine until there are problemswith the generator set. Considerthe following scenario:

A vessel has all of its gear inthe water and then experiencesa generator breakdown. If themain engine is still operationalthen the vessel would be capa-ble of returning to port, even ifthe fishing trip had to be cutshort. If the vessel has a hy-draulic system that runs off ofthe main engine then therewould be no trouble in recov-ering the gear. However, if thehydraulic system is electricallypowered, the entire set of fish-ing gear could be lost as thevessel would not be capable ofhauling the fishing gear.

Ideally, a vessel would have abackup system to cover suchsituations. Additionally, a hy-draulic system that operates alongline system should havesome sort of built in heat ex-changer, either sea-water or keelcooled. Hydraulic line haulersand reels work under a fairlyheavy load for eight to twelvehours during hauling. Hydrau-lic fluid can become quite hotand if it is not cooled, damagecan occur to motor and pumpseals in the system.

WHEELHOUSE ELECTRONICS

The following electronic appli-ances are either basic necessitiesfor longline fishing, or are highlyrecommended. Although it ispossible to operate without allof them, each has a function thatmakes navigation safer or fish-ing more productive or both:

Global Positioning System(GPS) receiver: Gives exact po-sition in latitude and longitudeat intervals of every second—accurate to within about 30 m.A GPS navigator is essential forboth longline fishing and gen-eral navigation.

Colour plotter: this can be sepa-rate from the GPS or can have abuilt-in GPS receiver. A plottergives more detailed informa-tion about the longline set. Theplotter actually draws a picture(plot) of how the line was setand how it was hauled.

A comparison of the two givesthe captain important informa-tion about set and drift (currentdirection and speed) and thepresence of eddies or conver-gences. Events like fish catchescan be entered on the plottereasily by pushing the ‘event’button. Geographical featureslike reefs can also be enteredonto the plotter.

Radar: essential for navigation,especially in areas where thereare abundant reefs or wherethere may be other vessels. Iffishing is done within radarrange of shore, radar can be usedto plot positions of longline set.A thirty-six mile range radarshould be sufficient for a long-line vessel.

Autopilot: autopilot is not es-sential but it is highly recom-mended as during setting it re-lieves one man from steeringthe vessel. Often this man is

needed on deck to help with theset or to bury fish. An autopilotalso gives a much straighter setthan hand-steering would. Someautopilots can also be used dur-ing hauling.

Single side band (SSB), or highfrequency (HF) radio: an HFradio is essential for communi-cation both for general naviga-tion (ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore) and for fishing. Longlinevessels can share catch and fishlocation information with eachother, and can relay catch dataand ETA (estimated time of ar-rival) to agent or manager onshore. With an export fisherydepending on air links to Japanand other international mar-kets, good communications arecritical.

VHF radio: short-range radiocommunication is essential forcommunications with harbourauthorities, agents, and withother vessels in crossing situa-tions to avoid collisions.

Colour sounder: a sounder isimportant for navigation, espe-cially in strange waters whenentering harbours or goingthrough passes in outer reefs.Another function of a sounderthat is important in longlinefishing is its ability to ‘find’ fish.In fact, sounders are often called‘fish finders’. This is not so im-portant for locating schools oftuna but for locating bait thattuna may be feeding on. Somesounders have the capability ofreading the depth of the thermo-cline, thought to be an optimumplace for deeper-water tunas(bigeye). Some sounders areequipped with sea-surface tem-perature sensors and are able todisplay this information graphi-cally on a time line.

Sea surface temperature (SST)monitor: SST data is importantinformation for longline fishing,


29


both for tunas and for broadbillswordfish. Fish are often foundon either side of a ‘temperaturebreak’ or an area where tem-perature drops or rises rapidlyin a short distance. Tempera-ture breaks are thought to accu-mulate bait as bait schoolsmove from cooler water intowarmer water or vice-versa.These accumulations of bait at-tract schools of larger fish liketuna or broadbill.

Radio direction finder (RDF)and radio buoys: this is not anessential item as longliners op-erated throughout the world foryears using only lights and col-oured flags on bamboo poles tolocate their lines.

However, using radio buoysand RDFs makes life a lot easierfor the fisherman as he gets torest between setting and haul-ing. Radio buoys are also use-ful when the mainline partsduring hauling. If a buoy can-not be located after a break inthe line then the vessel can al-ways steam to the next radiobuoy.

Usually several radio buoys areattached to the mainline, at in-tervals and at either end. RDFscan also be useful as navigationaids. A Taiyo Model TD-L1100(the most popular model RDF)is capable of tuning to land-basedairport beacon transmitters andto AM radio stations. This infor-mation could tell the captainwhich way to go to return toport in the event all other sys-tems failed. More sophisticatedRDFs allow for eavesdroppingon other vessel’s positions, thusgaining information about loca-tion of other fishing vessels andhopefully fish schools.

Weather fax receiver: weatherinformation is faxed world-wide on a number of frequen-cies. The information comes as

a weather map and is much moredetailed than reports given onHF radio or Inmarsat-C systems.Also available on some frequen-cies are remote-sensing data likesea-surface temperature maps.A weather fax is an essentialitem on any longline vesseloperating in the cyclone belt.

Inmarsat-C: satellite communi-cation between vessels and alsoship-to-shore is possible in a faxmode with Inmarsat-C(Inmarsat-A has voice commu-nication capabilities but is tooexpensive for longline opera-tions). In Hawaii Inmarsat-Csystems are mandatory on alllongline vessels as GPS positiondata of each vessel in the fleetis monitored to insure compli-ance with fisheries regulations.

As an aside, the fleet has beenable to use the Inmarsat-C sys-tem to greatly improve commu-nications with the added benefitthat all communications are se-cure. No one can eavesdrop ona fax transmission so two boatscan share confidential fishinginformation with each other.

Bathythermograph: a bathy-thermograph is an instrumentthat enables the vessel’s crew tomeasure the depth of thethermocline. The thermocline isthat place in the water columnwhere sea water temperaturechanges abruptly and is gener-ally thought to be an optimaldepth for targeting bigeye tu-nas. There are available on themarket, portable-disposablebathythermographs that are af-fordable as well. A bathy-thermograph is probably anoptional instrument.

PC or personal computer: com-puters are becoming more andmore desirable on fishing ves-sels. A PC is necessary forInmarsat-C two-way commu-nications using software like

Galaxy; and software is avail-able with charts for course plot-ting, for monitoring weather,and for getting real-time satel-lite oceanographic data like sea-surface temperatures.

Furuno (Japan) is probably themost popular maker of marineelectronics for longline fishingvessels. However, there are sev-eral other good brands to choosefrom including: Raytheon (USA),JRC (Japan Radio Corporation),Koden (Japan), SEA (StephensEngineering Systems, USA),Icom (Japan), Taiyo (Japan) toname but a few.

FISHING GEAR

There are two main types oflongline gear—traditional, orbasket gear, and compact, ormonofilament gear—with manycombinations and variations inbetween. Basket gear refers tothe original gear as developedby Japanese fishermen decadesago. It derives its name from thefact that the mainline (tarredKuralon or polyvinyl alcohol,and/or tarred Tetron or polyes-ter) was stored in baskets.

Typically traditional gear ishauled by a hydraulically, elec-trically, or mechanically (shaftdriven) line hauler and thebranchlines are coiled by hand.The sections of mainline are ei-ther coiled into some type ofbasket or tub or are tied up intoa bundle, and then stowed in acage or in bins.

Branchlines are usually left con-nected to the mainline and areplaced on top of each successivecoil of mainline. Branchlines aremade from tarred Kuralon, asekiyama or middle wire, aleaded swivel, and a galvanisedtrace, or leader, with hook. Re-finements to this system in-clude the use of electric coilersfor coiling branchlines and hy-


30

draulic line coilers (line ar-ranger) for arranging the main-line in a large bin. This type ofsystem is referred to as an ‘auto-matic’ system and is very popu-lar especially with the Okinawanfleet. Branchlines are usuallyseparated from the mainline onautomatic gear, then coiled andstowed in separate baskets.

The line is usually set with a linesetter, or shooter. This gives thecrew better control over depthof the mainline. With traditionalbasket gear the mainline is handthrown over the stern as the ves-sel steams ahead. Depth of set inthis case is variable. The most popu-lar manufacturer of traditionalbasket gear fishing machinery isIzui Iron Works (Japan).

Both traditional basket gearand more modern automaticbasket gear are excellent fishingsystems. However, both basketgear systems have two definitedisadvantages:

•One, the systems are very ex-pensive. New automatic bas-ket gear systems cost, on av-erage, about 25 per cent morethan what a monofilament reelfishing system would cost withequal setting capabilities.

•Two, the systems are very la-bour intensive and require ahigher degree of skill than isrequired for monofilamentsystems. Hand-coiling branch-lines, or even coiling with anautomatic coiler and stowingin baskets, is much more dif-ficult than coiling branchlinesinto a tub as is done with

monofilament systems. Mak-ing up the gear is also muchmore time consuming thanmaking up monofilament gear.Typically it takes a crewmanseveral seasons before he isproficient with basket gear,while monofilament gear can bemastered after only a few trips.

Some vessels, particularly Tai-wanese, use a combination ofthe two systems—monofila-ment mainline is hauled usinga basket-gear-type hauler. Usu-ally on these systems branch-lines are still coiled by hand orwith automatic coilers. Main-line is usually stored in largeplastic or bamboo baskets.

Another system that is some-where in between basket gearand monofilament reel gear isthe Japanese Magu-reel madeby Izui Iron Works. The Magu-reel is a cassette-type monofila-ment system. That is, the main-line is stored on not one, butseveral small reels, or cassettes.

The line is hauled with a hy-draulic line hauler much thesame as is used with basketgear. There is a separate hy-draulic machine called a linewinder that spools the mainlineonto the reels after it has beenpulled aboard by the hauler.The branchlines are removedfrom the mainline and arecoiled either by hand or with anelectric branchline coiler. Magu-reel systems use line setters andfish very well.

However, they are much moreexpensive than single reelmonofilament systems. The onlyadvantage is that the Magu-reelhauler takes up little room ondeck. However, the reels (usu-ally about 10 or 12) need to bestowed somewhere and movedforward and aft on a daily ba-sis. Both the Magu-reel systemsand the automatic basket gear

systems require three pieces ofhydraulic machinery and oneor two electric branchlinecoilers, while basket gear re-quires only one piece of hydrau-lic machinery and monofila-ment reel systems require onlyone or two. Branchline coilerscan be used with monofilamentreel systems but they are not anecessary piece of equipment.

Probably the most popular sys-tem in established and newly-developing Pacific Island long-line fisheries is the compact, ormonofilament longline systemthat uses one large reel to storeand haul the monofilamentmainline.

The system was developed onthe east coast of USA about 15years ago (Lindgren-Pitman)but now there are systems be-ing made in Australia, Europe,and Fiji (Leahy Engineering inAustralia, Bopp in France andSeamech in Fiji). The system iscomposed of a large hydrauli-cally-operated reel made ofsteel or aluminium that cancontain as much as 68 nauticalmiles (125 km) of nylon mono-filament—depending on thediameter of the line and the sizeof the reel. Lindgren-Pitmanhas recently come out with atwo-reel system that is capableof holding over 100 nauticalmiles (185 km) of line.

The line is set from the stern ofthe vessel, usually with the aidof a line setter (shooter) al-though it can be set without ashooter. If the line is set withouta shooter—this is called ‘tow-ing’ the line—then the length ofmainline set is equal to the dis-tance that the vessel travels andthe baited branchlines do notreach into very deep water.

With a shooter the depth of theset can be increased, as thelength of mainline paid out is



31

greater than the distance trav-elled by the vessel. Depths of100 fathoms (200 m) or morecan be reached. This is impor-tant when deep-swimming tu-nas (bigeye) are being targeted.As the line is paid out over thestern during setting, baitedbranchlines are attached at in-tervals usually controlled by anaudible signal from a settingtimer.

The number of branchlines setbetween floats is called a ‘bas-ket’ and can vary from 5 or 6 toas many as 30 or 40. Length offloatlines can vary from 5 fath-oms (10 m) to as much as 30fathoms (60 m). A typical oraverage tuna longline set wouldhave floatlines of 15 fathoms(30 m) and 20 branchlines of 5to 6 fathoms (10 to 12 m) in eachbasket. Radio buoys would beattached at either end and atintervals in between.

The monofilament nylon(polyamide) mainline can rangefrom 3.0 mm to 4.5 mm in di-ameter. The branchlines (snoods,gangions) can be made from1.8 mm to 2.1 mm diametermonofilament, 3.0 mm tarredKuralon, 3.0 mm tarred redpolyester, or a combination.

Branchlines can also have swiv-els (barrel, bullet, or leaded) andwire traces. Hooks can be Japantuna hooks with or withoutrings, big-game hooks, or circle(rotating) hooks. Connectionsare usually made with crimpsor swages, but sometimes knotsare used. Connected ends areprotected from chafing withaimata, thimbles, green springs,or plastic tubes.

The line is hauled usually fromthe starboard side of the vesseland stored directly back ontothe reel. Branchlines are re-moved as the line is movingand coiled into branchline bins

or tubs. Floatlines are also de-tached and floats and floatlinesare stowed somewhere on deck.

Monofilament reel systemshave three main advantagesover other longline systems:

•One, the initial cost is substan-tially less than for Japanesebasket gear systems. A com-plete tuna longline system witha monofilament reel for a me-dium-sized vessel (16 to 18 m)would cost about US$ 60,000,while an automatic basket gearor Magu-reel system wouldbe about 25 per cent more.

•Two, monofilament reel sys-tems are simpler than othersystems. It is easier for an op-erator and crew to learn howto master a monofilament sys-tem and it is easier for thecaptain or engineer to main-tain as well. Making up thegear for a monofilament sys-tem is relatively simple andcan be learned in a short time.

•Three, fishing effort can be in-creased, at least as comparedwith most other systems, whenmonofilament systems are used.

Arguably, the automatic basketgear systems, as used by mostOkinawan vessels, are as effi-cient as monofilament systems,but monofilament systems aremarkedly more efficient thantraditional basket gear or Tai-wanese basket gear systems.Cost, simplicity, and efficiencymake monofilament reel sys-tems the best choice for PacificIsland longline fisheries.

VESSEL COSTS

The main idea of commercialtuna longline fishing is to makemoney. If a good return cannotbe made from the initial invest-ment then fishing efforts areprobably a waste of time and

resources (fish and money).Money in the bank, with adjust-ments for inflation, can prob-ably be expected to earn at least5 per cent annually. If a fishingventure does not give investorsa return of at least 5 per cent inthe long run then it is probablynot worth the effort. In order tooptimise the chances of gettinga good return several thingsneed to be considered: there areprobably ceilings on vessel ef-fort, catch, and market perform-ance; expenses—variable, fixed,and marketing—are probablygoing to be greater than ex-pected; and Murphy’s law waswritten by a fisherman: ‘Ifsomething can go wrong, it willgo wrong’. One other thing: fi-nancial projections, especially inthe longline fishing industry,are fiction. Proposed profit-lossscenarios rarely correspondeven remotely to reality afterthe fact. The following oversim-plified financial scenario is of-fered as an example of whatmight be expected:

A medium-sized longline ves-sel with gear cost US$500,000. It makes 1.5 trips permonth of 10 sets each setting1,500 hooks each day of fishing.An average of 5 t of fish arecaught each trip (90 t annu-ally). The market value of thiscatch averages US$ 10,000/t.Annual gross receipts are,therefore, US$ 900,000. Mar-keting expenses in an exportfishery are about 50 per cent ofgross receipts so there is a netback to the company ofUS$ 450,000. Variable costs,or operating expenses (expensesshared by the boat and the crew)are deducted from this net.Variable expenses (fuel, bait,ice, food, etc.) are in the rangeof US$ 10,000/trip or US$180,000 annually (not count-ing salaries and wages). Thisleaves another net of US$270,000. This amount is then



32

divided between the boat andthe crew, usually in a 50/50ratio unless the crew are paidon a base wage with bonuses.The crew share is thusUS$ 135,000 (for a crew of sixthis would amount to annualwages of US$ 38,571 for thecaptain and US$ 19,285 foreach of the deckhands). Thebalance is the boat share—US$ 135,000. All fixed costshave to be paid out of thisamount. Fixed costs are basedon mortgage, interest, depre-ciation, hull insurance, main-tenance reserve, license fees,wharf charges, etc. Withoutgoing into all the details, fixedcosts could be expected to be inthe range of 20 per cent of theoriginal investment, or US$100,000 annually. This leaves

a final net back to the operationof US$ 35,000, or 7 per cent.Slightly better than what theoriginal investment wouldmake if the money was just leftin the bank and everyonestayed home.

This oversimplified picturedoes not take into account thespin-off benefits that this boatwould produce: some of themoney earned is foreign exportmoney, so the local economywould benefit and the vesselwould help to create employ-ment both in the fishery and inlocal goods and services. Withmore fine tuning and betterluck the net return might beexpected to grow over time toa higher figure.


If more than US$ 500,000 is in-vested in the vessel initially willthe returns be higher? Probablynot. At higher levels of invest-ment fixed costs become toohigh in relation to gross re-ceipts. A diminishing set of re-turns is the result. On the otherhand, if initial investment canbe kept low, as with the pur-chase of a second-hand vessel,the profit-loss picture mightlook brighter.

In the case of second-hand ves-sels a substantial risk is addedto an already very risky ventureso a high degree of cautionshould be used. Vessels thathave gone bankrupt once shouldprobably be avoided (there areusually good reasons why theygo bankrupt).

Vessels that are offered on ten-der after being seized for illegalactivities can be real bargains,on the other hand. Other waysto improve the profit-loss pic-ture are to seek ‘soft’ loans usu-ally offered through develop-ment banks or internationalassistance organisations; or tomake an outright purchase, inwhich case the vessel could be‘self insured’, saving the com-pany five or six per cent annu-ally of capital costs.

Annual mean Range Median(x US$ 1,000) (x US$ 1,000) (x US$ 1,000)

Revenue 504 58–1,153 481Variable costs 377 40–831 361Fixed costs 100 31–239 98Net return 27 (219)–253 28Add back non-cash depreciation charge 12 3–36 11Cash return 40 (205)–262 38

Average annual Hawaii-based domestic longline vessel economic information

Average annual Hawaii-based domestic longlinevessel characteristics [1 pound = 0.454 kg]

The tables showing average profit-loss from 95 Hawaii-based longline vessels for the year 1993 are extractedfrom: Hamilton, M, R. Curtis & M. Travis. 1996. Cost-Earnings Study of the Hawaii-Based Domestic LonglineFleet. Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research.

Mean

Vessel length (ft) 69Gross tons 94Total horsepower 457Purchase price (US$ 1,000) 267Additional investment (US$ 1,000) 106Value of electronics (US$ 1,000) 34Number of trips in 1993 10.8Travel days per trip 9.6Fishing days (sets)/trip 10.6Total pounds sold per trip 18,021


33


OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Other things to consider arewhat type of survey is necessaryand what type of registry is re-quired. Depending on local rulesand/or requirements of lendersand insurance companies, avessel may have to be under aparticular survey such as thoseproscribed by American Bu-reau of Shipping (USA), Uni-form Shipping Laws (Australia),or Bureau Veritas (French).

Flag of registry is equally im-portant. After a vessel is pur-chased and imported into acountry it may have to undergoa new survey and be re-flagged.This can be quite expensive,and so should be looked intobeforehand so costly mistakescan be avoided.

Lastly, aside from suitabilityand versatility, simplicity is alsosomething to be sought in alongline fishing vessel. Somewise business manager yearsago came up with this appro-priate acronym to describe auniversal management ap-proach to most situations: the‘KISS Principle’ or ‘Keep It Sim-ple, Stupid’.

The more complicated a long-line vessel and its systems are,the more likely it is to experi-ence costly breakdowns. Anexample of this is hydraulicleader carts for winding in andstowing branchlines and float-lines. The job of pulling in float-ers and floatlines can be doneby hand, and it is on mostlongline vessels.

Some vessels use hydraulically-operated reels, called leadercarts, to wind in branchlines orfloat lines and floats. Hydrau-lic leader carts add a needlesscomplication to an alreadyfairly complex piece of machin-ery, and more problems as well:

one more hydraulic motor tobreak, one more set of hosesand fittings to wear out and bereplaced, one more thing topaint and grease.

This is not to mention the addi-tional initial expense and theroom they take up on deck.There are countless other exam-ples of bits and pieces that couldbe avoided or simplified on afishing vessel including engineroom layout, machinery, decklayout, fishing gear configura-tion and components, pumpingsystems, alarm systems, etc.

THE MASTERFISHERMAN’S

IDEAL LONGLINE VESSEL

The ideal longline vessel forfishing in Pacific Island coun-tries would be 21 m length overall by 6.5 m beam and 3.6 mdepth. It would be made fromsteel and have a single hardchine, a stern wheelhouse, anda raised bow (see appendix Afor general arrangements).

The main engine would be aCaterpillar 3406 with a TwinDisc gearbox, electric starter,keel cooler, and dry exhaust. Itwould have a thirty kW genera-tor set with a name brand likeOnan or Northern lights. Thefuel tank capacity would be25,000 litres and the fresh wa-ter capacity would be 4,000 li-tres. Crew complement wouldbe eight men.

The fish hold would be a single40–50 t hold for icing fish (fif-teen tonne chilled-fish capac-ity). It would be separated intoseveral compartments with alu-minium or wooden bin boards.One bin could serve as a freezerroom for bait storage. Therewould be a hydraulic boom foroffloading fish.

The wheelhouse would beequipped with mostly Furuno

electronics including 36 n.mi.radar, SSB radio, VHF radio,GPS with colour plotter, echosounder with sea surface tem-perature monitor, and aweather facsimile receiver.

It would also have an auto pi-lot and a Taiyo Model TD1100radio direction finder. Optionalgear would be an Inmarsat-Ctransceiver, a PC or personalcomputer (486 with Windows95), and a bathythermograph.

Fishing gear would consist of aLindgren-Pitman Super Spooland LS-4 line setter. Hydraulicsfor the fishing gear would runoff of a belt-driven power-take-off from the main engine andwould run through a heat ex-changer. The LP reel would have50 n.mi. of 3.6 mm monofila-ment mainline. There would be4 branchline tubs each holding440 branchlines (10 m long).

The branchlines would be madefrom tarred red polyester 3.0mm line with 45 g leaded swiv-els and one metre of stainlesssteel wire leader ending in aMustad 3.6 stainless steel tunahook with ring. Other gear wouldinclude at least four radio bu-oys, about one hundred 360 mmplastic floats, about 10 strobelights, gaffs, grapples, spikes, etc.and spare parts for everything.

Last but probably most impor-tant is safety equipment. Theideal vessel would be equippedwith an eight-man life raft, twoor three life rings with strobelights, a 406 EPIRB (emergencyposition indicating radio bea-con), a well stocked medical kit,ample fire extinguishers, emer-gency signal devices (hand-held flares, rocket flares, andsmoke signals), and a separatebattery for the HF radio locatedoutside the engine room. Expi-ration dates on all safety equip-ment would be current.


34


21.00 m steel fishing boat

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT II

Scale: as shown

Drawn: GB

Rome, 1983

Main particulars

Length over all 21.00 mLength water line 19.90 mBeam (max) moulded 6.50 mDepth (moulded) 3.60 mDraft at D.W.L. 3.00 mHold capacity 30.00 m3

CSW tank capacity 39.00 m3

Fuel oil 22,500 lFresh water 5,500 lMain engine 300 hp

0 1.00 5.00 m

SB2

Drwg no.Boat no.

1 & 2

General arrangements of an ideal mid-sized steel longline vessel. Adapted from: Eyres, D. J. 1984. Fishingboat designs: 4. Small steel fishing boats. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap. (239): 33p.


35


1. Fishing lights2. Navigation lights3. 6.50 m boom, 1000kg SWL4. Search light5. 4.25 m boom6. Anchor roller7. Windlass8. Mainline davit9. Mainline block

10. Fore peak stowage11. Anchor chain stowage12. Accomodation (8 berths)13. Salt water ballast14. Fuel oil tanks15. Fish hold, 30 m3

16. 3 C.S.W. tanks, 13 m3 each17. Engine room18. Gear stowage19. Steering gear and fresh water tanks20. Access to fore peak

21. Wheelhouse22. Concrete ballast23. Chart table24. Deck store25. Inflatable liferaft, 10 man26. Supply vents to engine room27. Line hauler28. Hatch to insulated hold29. Hatches to C.S.W. tanks30. 2 berth cabin31. W.C. and shower32. Galley33. Mess table and seating34. Refrigerator35. Locker36. Hatch to gear store37. Hatch to steering gear38. Sonar space39. Emergency exit from engine room

0 1.00 5.00 m


36

4 0 °

3 0 °

2 0 °

1 0 °

0 °

1 0 °

2 0 °

1 3 0 °

1 8 0 °1 3 0 ° 1 4 0 ° 1 5 0 ° 1 6 0 ° 1 7 0 ° 1 7 0 ° 1 6 0 ° 1 5 0 ° 1 4 0 ° 1 3 0 °

1 4 0 °1 5 0 °1 6 0 °1 7 0 °1 8 0 °1 7 0 °1 6 0 °1 5 0 °1 4 0 °1 3 0 °

2 0 °

1 0 °

1 0 °

4 0 °

200 4000 600 800 1000120014001600

SCALE ( kilometres )

The heavy black broken line is designed to showthe region served by t he SP C . It should not beinterpreted as showing international boundaries.

Tropic of Cancer

West of GreenwichEast of Greenwich

Tropic of CapricornTropic of Capricorn

Tropic of Cancer

MIDWAY

HAWAII

Honolulu

WAKE

PhilippineSea

NORTHERNMARIANAISLANDS

GUAM

SAIPAN

YAP

PALAU

AREA SER VED BY T HE SOUT H PACIFIC C OMMISSIO N

N O R T H P A C I F I C O C E A N

MAJUROKOSRAE

KWAJALEINPOHNPEICHUUK

TARAWA KIRIBATI

PHOENIX ISLANDS

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

Equator Equator

NAURUMANUS Kavieng

NEW IRELAND

BOUGAINVILLESANTA ISABEL

MALAITA

SAN CRISTOBALSANTA CRUZISLANDS

TUVALU

RabaulBismarck Sea

Solomon SeaHoniara

GUADALCANALSamarai

. Port MoresbyTHURSDAY

ISLAND

Arafura Sea

Darwin.

IRIANJAYA

PAPUANEW

GUINEA

NORTHERN

TERRITORY

QUEENSLAND

A U S T R A L I A

SOUTH

AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES

Cairns.

.Townsville

Rockhampton.

Brisbane.

Sydney.

Canberra

VICTORIAMelbourne .

.Adelaide

TASMANIA

Coral Sea

Tasman Sea

Auckland

Wellington

NEW ZEALAND

SOLOMON ISLANDS

ESPIRITU SANTOMALAKULA

EFATEPort Vila

NORFOLK

LORD HOWEKERMADECISLANDS

S O U T H P A C I F I C O C E A N

FIJI

VITI LEVU

VANUA LEVU

ROTUMA WALLISAND

FUTUNA

WESTERNSAMOA

AMERICANSAMOA

Apia

Pago Pago

FUNAFUTI TOKELAUPUKAPUKA

MANIHIKIPENRHYN

VAVA'U

TONGATAPU

KINGDOM

OF

TONGA

Nuku'alofa

NIUE

AITUTAKI

RAROTONGA

MARQUESASISLANDS

FRENCH POLYNESIA

TUAMOTU

ARCHIPELAGO

AUSTRAL ISLANDS

RAPA ITI

GAMBIER ISLANDS

PITCAIRN

SOCIETY ISLANDS

Papeete

TAHITI

Suva

Noumea

JOHNSTON ISLAND

CHRISTMASISLAND

OCEAN ISLAND

VANUATU

NEW CALEDONIAAND

DEPENDENCIES

VOLCANO ISLANDS

BONIN ISLANDS

© Copyright South Pacific Commission 1997

The South Pacific Commission authorises the reproduction of this material, whole or in part, in any form,

provided appropriate acknowledgement is given.

Original text: English

South Pacific Commission, Fisheries Information Section, B.P. D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New CaledoniaTelephone: (687) 262000 – Fax: (687) 263818 – E-mail: [email protected]

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