Reef Rangers 4: Sustainable fishing

After a break through Ramazan, the Reef Rangers club is up and running once again.

In this activity the Reef Rangers worked as “Fisheries Scientists” interviewing some of the oldest fishermen in neighbouring island Maalhos to learn about how fishing has changed over the years.  Some of the fishermen that were interviewed were fishing as long back as the 1950s and have witnessed tremendous changes in the Baa Atoll fish stocks.  After the interviews were conducted, the Reef Rangers analysed the clear patterns in the fishermens answers.  The answers revealed huge pressures to the fish stocks, particularly tuna and grouper.  In the 1950s one fisherman used to catch 50kg tuna in one trip by pole and line (1 hook), and yet 20 years ago he was forced into changing to long line fishing (1000s of hooks) as it was becoming increasingly difficult to catch tuna. Despite using thousands of hooks, his catch only increased by a very small amount, indicating a fish stock under severe pressure.  By changing to this intensive fishing technique, we would expect his catch to increase by a huge amount, but this was not the case. Other trends were fishermen having to travel much further to find fish, and a general decrease in the size of fish caught, particularly grouper.    

The new Reef Rangers logo!

Analysing the fishermen's answers about how the
fishing has changed in Baa Atoll

The Reef Rangers Club with some of the
Maalhos fishermen

Reef surveying and capacity building in Maldives

 

Through the Six Senses Social and Environmental Responsibility Fund, Biosphere Expeditions certified Soneva Fushi hosts as Reef Check Eco Divers. Three more hosts won the opportunity to join the reef surveying expedition onboard luxury liveaboard the Carpe Diem, while two local scholarship winners from the government’s Marine Research Centre joined the expedition to build their capacity to survey reefs. Two local divemasters were also certified.

Through this SERF grant an educational children’s colouring book was also sponsored, which was handed over to the Ministry of Education. 2,500 copies have been printed and are soon to be distributed through Maldives schools.

Many sites were surveyed on the expedition providing the government with much needed data on reef health, as well as feeding into a global reef database.

Maldives host scholarships will be available every year for the next three years.

Opportunities will be advertised later in 2012.   



Recording whale shark ID!

The local scholarship winners from the
Marine Research Centre



The first Biosphere Expeditions team in Maldives!







Handing over the childrens book to the
Ministry of Education



Biosphere Expeditions offer two expedition places to Six Senses hosts

Biosphere Expeditions are offering Six Senses hosts the opportunity to join their Maldives expeditions to get trained in the Reef Check methodology on board luxurary live aboard the Carpe Diem. Two places will be offered anually from each Maldives property to build capacity for our hosts to assist with coral reef monitoring.

The first applicants for these scholarships were Mr. Fridays Shareef and Majid from Soneva Fushi who, after a large ammount of studying, are now certified as Reef Check Eco Divers and have completed many Reef Check surveys throughout South Male' Atoll and Ari Atoll as part of the Biosphere Expeditions team.

Home for the week - the Carpe Diem

Majid and Kate

The Soneva Fushi team!

Soneva Fushi certified as a Reef Check Centre

Founder of Biosphere Expeditions, Matthias Hammer, certified the first of Soneva Fushi’s hosts as Reef Check Eco Divers.

Reef Check is an international organization committed to the conservation of coral reef ecosystems and is the United Nations official coral reef monitoring program. Reef Check harnesses the enthusiasm of volunteer SCUBA divers and trains them to conduct simple reef surveys – data from these suveys is then submitted to a global database. Currently there are Reef Check teams in over 80 countries.  

Reef Check's goals are:

1. to educate the public about the value of reef ecosystems and the current crisis affecting marine life
2. to create a global network of volunteer teams trained in Reef Check's scientific methods who regularly monitor and report on reef health
3. to facilitate collaboration that produces ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions
4. to stimulate local community action to protect remaining pristine reefs and rehabilitate damaged reefs worldwide

Kris and Shahir from Soneva Fushi’s watersports team were both certified as Reef Check Eco Divers, and Soneva Fushi’s marine biologist Kate Wilson was certified as a Reef Check trainer of Trainers enabling her to certify others as Reef Check Eco Divers.

Outdoor classroom

Demonstrating feet in the air positioning to
avoid damage to the reef whilst surveying

   



Shahir recording invertebrates



Kris recording the substrate

 

Shahir reeling in the transect tape



Large animals such as turtles are also recorded



Certified Reef Check Eco Divers!