Development of marine resources, especially tuna, is the key to national development for many newly-independent states of the South Pacific. They have industrialized fishing through joint ventures-collaborations between bost governments and multinational corporations. Based on two years' field research, this report illuminates the first decade (1971-1981) of a tuna fishing joint venture between Taiyo Gyogyo of Tokyo, the largest fishing company in the world, and the Solomon Islands Government.
In the aftermath of the tsunami in 2007, in an effort to assist communities in Western Province in Solomon Islands, the World Wide Fund for Nature, Solomon Islands (WWFSI) received funding from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation for a project on “Post-disaster fisheries and marine conservation recovery activities in the Western Province, Solomon Islands”.
Sandfish is arguably the most commercially valuable of the tropical species of sea cucumber that are processed into bêche-de-mer. It is widely distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific, occurring in shallow inshore areas where it is easily accessible to coastal fishers. A-grade bêche-de-mer processed from sandfish commands some of the highest prices on the international market. But these same attributes also make it vulnerable to overexploitation. Sadly, this has happened in most places where it occurs.
In this paper, we tested these predictions by collecting spat before and during the wet season of 1996–1997 in ‘offshore’ and ‘inshore’ zones from two regions of Solomon Islands. We also quantified variation in major environmental variables between the offshore and inshore zones to determine whether they corresponded with the hypotheses of Friedman et al. (1998) concerning the effects of run-off on the settlement of spat of P. margaritifera.
A large polyclad flatworm has been consistently found associated with mortalities of the cultured giant clam, Tridacna gigas (L.) and the fouling pearl oyster Pinctada maculata (Gould) in Solomon Islands. Stylochus (Imogene) matatasi n. sp. is described and a brief account of its biology is given.
The project "Improving resilience and adaptive capacity of fisheries-dependent communities in Solomon Islands" uses participatory diagnosis to identify threats to rural coastal communities in Solomon Islands and sources of resilience. The WorldFish Center, which leads the project, defines a resilient small-scale fishery as one that absorbs stress and reorganizes itself following disturbance, while still providing benefits for poverty reduction.
Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) are some of the most vulnerable nations to climate change. Growing populations, combined with climate change and overfishing of inshore reef fish, will compound food security problems arising from an increasing gap between fish demand and supply. Along with some other PICTs, Solomon Islands recognises the need for new sources of fish to meet future food security requirements. Options include fish imports, increasing access to offshore tuna fisheries such as with inshore fish aggregating devices, and aquaculture development.
Successful management of socio-ecological systems not only requires the development and field-testing of robust and measurable indices of vulnerability and resilience but also improved understanding of the contextual factors that influence societal capacity to adapt to change. We present the results of an analysis conducted in three coastal communities in Solomon Islands.
The specific aims of our study were: (1) to determine whether cultured juvenile H. scabra released near mangrove–seagrass and coral reef flat habitats suffered different levels of predation, and (2) to identify the predators of juvenile H. scabra and determine whether cages provided short-term protection for released individuals.
Juvenile cultured sandfish (Holothuria scabra) with a mean size of 35.6 F11.4 S.D. were released on soft substrata near mangrove–seagrass and lagoonal coral reef flat habitats in the Western Province of Solomon Islands. Mean survival of H. scabra at the mangrove–seagrass sites was 95–100% 1 h after release and approximated 70% 3 days later. At the coral reef flat sites, however, mean survival was as low as 37.5% 1 h after release and total mortality occurred in two of the three releases within 48 h. Mortality of the juvenile H.