Fishing Industry in The Maldives - Issues

Issues

Overfishing has occurred for

• Black corals - These were presumably once abundant on Maldivian reefs. Over the last two decades large quantities were removed, and they are now protected.

• Giant clams - The giant clam fishery was very short-lived, lasting about a year from 1990. This exploitation of the giant clam was very destructive to the reefs and the government banned the fishery in 1991.

• Turtles - Turtles have been exploited for local trade and consumption for hundreds of years. They were further exploited to provide curios for the tourists. A moratorium on catching turtles has been in force since 1995.

• Sea cucumbers - The most popular species of sea cucumbers have been overexploited, resulting in near collapse of the fishery in 1997.

Environmental issues include marine pollution. Examples are increasing risks of spills from oil tankers, and industrial discharges from countries to the north, such as organochlorine residues such as DDT, and heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, lead, and arsenic. Certain destructive methods used when fish aggregating can cause irreversible damage to the coral reefs, as can boats dropping anchors. Toxic household chemicals have been used when forage fishing. There has been a loss of coastal habitats associated with dredging harbours, reclamation, and the mining of coral and sand for construction. This has affected seagrass beds, mangroves and coral reefs. The significance of mangroves areas to the coastal and marine fishery has not been adequately studied.

Outside aid programmes have initiated reef monitoring projects in the Maldives. However, monitoring has been discontinued when projects have finished, and little of this information has been used to inform decision-making. The Maldives needs to maintain continuity in monitoring, and coordinate its approach to managing its reefs.