Resilient Reef Fisheries Governance of the Pacific Islands in the Era of Globalization

摘要

A young, humphead wrasse cheilinus un-dulatas, an exotic plate-sized reef fish, swims in the aquarium of a restaurant in Hong Kong or perhaps southern China having arrived most immediately from Singapore, a nation with no reefs or significant fishery.Its journey, however, may have begun on a reef near one of the small islands of the Pacific before being shuttled from the boat of a local fisherman, to an intermediary's boat, to an air transport terminal, to an importer's warehouse; finally to the restaurant. Other reef fish may have made a journey of several months in the hull of a large commercial fishing vessel holding catches in excess of 9,000 kg. At $200 per kilogram, the humphead wrasse is an attractive target and may have been taken using dynamite or cyanide, an easy but destructive method of live capture. Rising affluence in China along with crashing fish stocks in Asia are fueling demand for gourmet reef fish from the Pacific. Fishing companies, wanting to avoid questions regarding destructive fishing practices, run the fish through Singapore in order to "launder" their true origins (Environmental News Service 2002).