Republic of Palau marine resources profile

Abstract

To date, few quantitative assessments of the marine resources of Palau have been conducted. For the off-shore tuna fishery, reasonable data time-series are available for the foreign access tuna fishery, but data for domestically based tuna operations are incomplete. For the near-shore fishery, reef resources are exploited by subsistence, commercial and recreational fishermen. Very few data are available that document trends in production for most reef-resident and reef-associated fisheries resources in Palau, except for the trochus fishery. Commercial landings data for the reef fishery are generally available only for the Palau Federation of Fishing Associations (PFFA) and information regarding subsistence catches is extremely scant, but anecdotal information gathered by Johannes (1991) and others indicates a general decline in fishing success for the main species in the inshore fishery. There is general agreement that the inshore fishery needs to be more effectively managed, for which an improvement to the type and quality of available fisheries information is required. Preston (1990), Ianelli (1987), Crossland (1990) and FFA (1987) all provide plans for improvements for data collection and analysis and management of the in-shore and offshore fisheries in Palau.