Title: An appraisal of the artisanal and subsistance fisheries monitoring in Fiji islands
Abstract
In view of strengthening the current artisanal and subsistence catch sampling an appraisal of the two monitoring programmes of Fiji Fisheries Department was carried out. An overview of the artisanal fishery sampling programme and its related strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats revealed a major limitation of the Department not having the capacity to follow the current sampling regime. Thus statistical analysis was carried out to determine if this sampling regime organised by month, which necessitates sampling each day from Monday to Saturday was warranted. Survey data from markets Lautoka, Ba, and Nadi for the period April to August 2005 were analysed as an indicator. Analysis of the variations in total landed catch weights (by performing analysis of variance) and associated species composition (by applying hierarchical cluster analysis) between the markets, days and months, indicated that the sampling strategy is not warranted. Sampling can be organised by season since there were no significant variations in catch landings and species composition between the months April and –August, which indicate a season. Saturday and Monday are exceptional days in the fishery. Saturday has the highest landed catch and species composition and Monday the lowest. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are similar with a slight increase in landed catch and species assemblage as the week progresses. Equal sampling for all days is not warranted but sampling on Saturdays and Mondays is important. Subsistence catch (tonnes) for the seven communities namely Namatakula, Komave, Taqage, Lami, Suvavou, Vugalei and Nasavusavu tikina were evaluated using the socio-economic household survey data. Bootstrapping was done to obtain a standard deviation for the estimated catch and a CV for the sampling. Some suggestions were provided for strengthening the survey as this is an on-going programme and in future the samples can be utilised in estimating the total subsistence catch for Fiji.