The National Fisheries Authority (NFA) has imposed a 3 year ban on sea cucumber fishery for "Beche-de-mer". ... the reason being this fishery is exhausted to a point of collapsing. The ban is said to affect almost 300,000 people in coastal communities nationwide. Also the industry players (buyers, and sellers) in PNG will be affected. NFA had opted that this three year ban had to be imposed to maintain sustainability, how? sea cucumber collection by people exceeds the rate that an individual grows to an adult.. so do we wanna prolong the years to wait for natural recovery? or can we aquaculture and replenish over harvested reefs... we better start farming sea cucumber en mass to aid recovery in the wild and start exporting F2 generations instead of wild stock. Many local fishing villages who depend directly from beche-de-mer for school fees, basic needs, pocket money etc.. will have difficulty financing their livelihood. The challenge is for NFA to provide an alternative fishery so the affected coastal people can still fish their means. What is the new alternative then? how best will they implement the management of this new alternative fishery?.. given the lessons learned from beche-de-mer fishery.
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