The Ministry of Fisheries has identified a number of villagers found to have been harvesting and selling undersized beche-de-mer and other banned species of fish to some local seafood facilities.

Fisheries Minister, Semi Koroilavesau says the raid at a facility over the weekend led the fisheries officers to the source of this under-sized beache-de-mer and banned fish.

“In the provinces of Vanua Levu like Bua and Macuata mainly but my officers have told me there are also incidents where they are monitoring along the coast of Viti Levu. We need wider consultations and awareness to the villagers. Basically, we are running out of all the species we have in Fiji, two are totally extinct which basically means we have over-harvested and there’s no more available underwater. For the benefit of future generations we need to carry out some actions.”

Koroilavesau says the villagers must understand the reason behind enforcing the ban.

Meanwhile, any individual found selling or harvesting beche-de-mers can be fined $10,000 dollars and any company found purchasing or selling beche-de-mers or any other banned fish species can face a penalty of up to $20,000 dollars.