The impact of Commercial fishing and the Destruction of Coral reefs by the Aquarium Trade in Mauritius
The disappearing reef shark population and the catastrophic destruction of corals in Mauritius. Why?
Grey Reef, White tip, Black tip and Silver tip reef sharks have disappeared from Round Island
MAURITIUS AND FISHING
Shark fishing is illegal in Mauritius. Shark finning is illegal in Mauritius. The Marine Resources Protection Act protects the reefs. So how did Princes Tuna trawlers fish out the entire seasons crop of reef sharks from the caverns and caves around Round Island and Snake Island in November of 2023?
Marine Conservation in Mauritius is vitally important particularly since Mauritius is the Worlds largest primarily Oceanographic State with fishing rights to 2.3 million square miles of the Indian Ocean, from the Chagos Islands including Deigo Garcia (the USA Indian Ocean Strategic Military base is part of Mauritius) to Agalega, Saint Brandon and Rodrigues.
Fish is caught by the European nations under the Europeche agreement, and quotas are strictly controlled by licenses. But a major player has now expanded within Mauritius itself.
In 2016, the Port Louis harbor was extended to accommodate additional fishing trawlers. The Princes Tuna processing plant was extended and although Princes Tuna does not own fishing trawlers, a fleet of 12 trawlers supplied on lend lease by Japan began to supply the new plant as soon as it became operational. The big game fish disappeared almost over night, destroying many Tourist based fishing competitions.
There are now serious questions about over fishing around Mauritius, and we ask are what controls are in place?
Port Lois harbor Monday 23 September 2024. Every blue dot is a fishing trawler waiting to deliver its catch to Princes Tuna (I counted 64 on the AIS site).https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/global-search/?term=mauritius
Princes Tuna Mauritius is a joint venture with long-term partners Ireland Blyth Limited (IBL) and the Mauritian State Investment Corporation (SIC). IBL is one of the largest private companies in Mauritius.
Our understanding was that only 12 fishing trawlers would be commissioned and manned by Mauritians. This is no longer the case judging from the number of fishing trawlers queuing up outside Princes Tuna.
Who is manning the Satellite system that monitors the fishing trawlers that supply this IBL subsidiary? There is no indication on their website that they have signed into the Europeche agreement, neither are they exempt from global regulatory fishing practices. I note that the EU is expressing concern about the management of marine resources in Mauritius.
The Mauritius Government swiftly implements conservation efforts as recommended by the many international bodies which are determined to preserve marine resources. Mauritius was also re-elected to the ISA Council for the period January 2025 to December 2028.
AIS Membership badge
Why then has this catastrophic degree of over-fishing accepted?
There is grave cause for concern among divers and sport fishers that many of our large game fish are missing, together with all our young reef sharks. Where are the marlin, the swordfish, the huge tuna?
I looked at the AIS fish tracking site, and the answer in not hard to find. The number of fishing trawlers waiting to get into Port Louis harbour is simply terrifying. The Indian Ocean around Mauritius is being raped by fishing trawlers, in quantities that are out of control. They are queuing up to enter Princes Tuna in Port Louis.
Is this corporate greed on steroids? IBL Princes Tuna only contributes 1% to the GDP of Mauritius, so it seems a little disproportionate in terms of the return on investment against conservation and the future of the Indian Ocean.
MAURITIUS AND REEF CONSERVATION
With shark diving not currently an option, we look to the protection and preservation of the reefs, and even more important to the diving industry is reef conservation. For years we could not show pictures of rare and special and sometimes endangered endemic species because there was wait for it – a local company licensed to take 10 000 specified reef fish a year from the reefs in Mauritius. I met the head of the company, who had recently appeared on an Aquarium show in Germany, where he was thrilled to announce that they had received an order for thousands of reef fish. “Sadly, ‘he said, “I can only find around 4 000.”
Removing reef fish is a very effective way of destroying the multi million Euro scuba diving travel industry- scuba divers do not travel for 11 hours to look at dead corals and PADI and the major UK Tourist Guides have both registered Mauritius on their platforms as a splendid diving destination.
Its time for Mauritius to reassess its priorities. 1% of the Mauritius GDP in the pocket of a single corporation? Or 26% of the Mauritius Tourism GDP in the pockets of the thousands of Mauritian families that are dependent on tourism?
The collection of reef fish, and the un-controlled trawler and long liner fishing could have a serious negative impact on tourism if these collection practices are permitted to continue.
The coral reefs around Bali were wiped out by the marine aquarium trade, and the main importer was in Europe. I met the man that collected for a German Company one of the largest marine aquarium builders in the EU.
This collector blamed global warming for coral death. He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was the cause of the coral death through the collection of the clourful marine fish for his aquarium trade! .Marine aquarium owners love the colourful vegetarian fish, and they are the fish that eat the algae. Acantharudae, Zebrasoma, Siganidae, Scaridae and Nasiae are the coral farmers, and play a vital role in keeping the reefs healthy.
Once the herbivorous fish have been taken the corals become covered in fast growing algae and they die.
Do marine aquarium collectors understand how much damage they do to the coral reefs? They clearly love marine fish. But do they understand the impact of their passion?
Acantharudae
Zebrasoma Unicornfish
Scaridae, Parrotfish
Photographs David Holloway
Text Jill JHolloway
C 2024
Here are a few links to Conservation sites that promote marine conservation, I hope you will take a look, and maybe implement some of these suggestions?
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