Provisional Environmental Impact Assessment for the Extraction of Coral Reef Products for the Marine Aquarium and Curio Trade in Fiji

Abstract

Commercial collection of the living material from coral reefs for export has cause concern with regard to its environmental impacts and sustainability. The requirement for aquarium products and curio coral is growing rapidly. Its management at both the community and Government level is lagging due to the unclear status of the fishery. The resource represents a valuable export but the emerging nature of the fishery prevents management, traditional, or otherwise, which is based on biological data or ecological relationships other than in a categorical sense. No statistical comparison of the effects of extraction are immediately possible due to the lack of both baseline data and history of observation. This report discusses the current state of the aquarium products and coral harvesting industry in Fiji. The fishery utilizes coral as ornaments and live coral, plants, other animals and reef rock for coral reef aquaria. Collection for other uses such as for medical purposes, the construction of sewerage soakage pits for other constructional purposes is only briefly considered.