The Fisheries ministry has once again clarified the importance of the seasonal ban on the grouper fish Kawakawa and Donu.
Acting Permanent Secretary for Fisheries Ministry Naipote Katonitabua says in addition to the sustainability of the species, the ban is also the result of commitments made at the UN Oceans conference last year.
Fiji made 17 voluntary commitments, one of which was the commitment towards the protection and sustainable management of the ocean.
Katonitabua says the ministry legislated the four month seasonal ban on catching, possession, sale and export of Kawakawa and Donu which is effective from June to September of this year.
“This was the first step towards rebuilding stocks of these valuable fisheries reasources.Groupers are very vulnerable to overfishing because of their biology and in particular their predictable annual spawning aggregation behavior.”
Katonitabua says action was needed as the critical food and income for Fijians were facing a collapse and more than ninety percent of the Kawakawa and Donu breeding sites have been lost.
