Marine Reserve in Matuku "Tabu

By Birgit Hackl

Awareness for the need to protect the environment and its resources is slowly growing in Fiji. “Conservation International” and the “Lau Seascape Strategy” are doing studies and setting ambitious goals to protect the ocean and its wildlife, but when we talk to people in the villages of remote islands, we still get the impression that sustainability remains an abstract concept. Many of the reefs are horribly overfished and empty especially those of islands with a town or resort nearby. Fishermen go out every day (and worse, every night) to catch the last, little reef fish to make a profit today, without contemplating what they’ll do tomorrow. Over the last years electricity has arrived in the remotest areas of Fiji and with the installation of freezers the fishermen of those islands also get the chance to export fish and make some quick money.

Unfortunately the reefs cannot provide enough fish for that kind of economy. While the ocean provided for centuries to the islanders who were doing subsistence fishing (and farming), modern fishing techniques and export deplete the resources of a small island within a few years.

We have been cruising in the South Pacific for 10 years and have spent lots of time snorkeling reefs in French Polynesia, Tonga, the Cook Islands and now in Fiji. Unfortunately many of the reefs are nearly empty and without herbivore fish to clean them, the corals get overgrown by algae. Quite often we return from a dive sad and depressed. But sometimes we find a healthy reef that still has a diversity of wildlife and then we try to talk to the fishermen about the necessity to limit fishing/harvesting and protect at least certain areas to ensure the future of the eco-system (important for the world), but also the future of subsistence fishing (very important for them). If they just smile about our naive “touristy” concerns, we don’t get into an argument, it’s not worth it. But if they are interested, show that they have noticed changes and are concerned about them, we are happy to share what we have witnessed on other islands across the Pacific, show examples of islands that are faring well due to careful resource management and others where now frantic protection efforts are made, but where it’s too late already and the reefs are dead and empty.

The people of Matuku in the southwestern Lau (Moala Group) have made a big step towards sustainable fishing by installing 3 big “Tabu” no-fishing zones around their island. We visited the island three times over the last year, chatted with the villagers, took a presentation about sustainability to the local school and had meetings with the chiefs and headmen. Soon they agreed that they had to take measures to ensure a future for their fishing grounds Matuku has fertile gardens, but fish is nevertheless one of the cornerstones of their nutrition. First they wanted to install tabu areas for a limited time, then they contemplated only prohibiting night-time fishing, but in the end we managed to persuade them that having a complete, permanent fishing ban for a big area is the most efficient way to protect the fish and ensure good fishing for the community around the limits of such a “tabu” area. The smaller ones on the southern and eastern side of the island are difficult to visit by sailboat, but the biggest one is located just off the main pass on the western side of the island with a wonderfully protected anchorage in the bay of Lomati close by!

If you cruise in the Lau Islands of Fiji, make a stop-over in Matuku, enjoy the wonderful snorkeling, praise the islanders for their environmental efforts and leave a donation to help them maintain and patrol their “tabu” no-fishing zones: the islanders are worried that fishing expeditions from the mainland or from neighbouring islands may come to plunder their reefs at night… If you can’t make it to Matuku, but would still like to support the project, visit our blog www.pitufa.at for a donation!

As cruisers we live close to nature, visit many different places, can compare them and witness how they change over time. Too many of the reefs are overfished as it is, so cruisers really shouldn’t deplete the reef fish even more during their visits. However, a few islands are still untouched and teeming with life, but wouldn’t it be much nicer to just marvel at the diversity of life and watch their behaviour instead of going spearfishing? If you just take one grouper and one coconut crab, imagine what happens if all boats following in your wake will do the same.

Our advice to fellow sailors is to live after the old motto “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footsteps”. If you’d like to take this philosophy a bit further and have a positive influence, you could also try to talk to islanders about fishing and raise awareness for sustainability.