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Aquarium Fish Collectionin the Cook Islands

2000

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0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

199719961995199419931992199119901989

Aquarium

fish

collec

tion

The com m ercial exploitation of

aquarium fish in Rarotonga began

in the late 1980s. A lthough the

operation is relatively sm all, it is anim portant export com m odity, aver-

aging approxim ately three per cent

of the total value of the countrys

exports. C urrently the operation

em ploys up to ten people.

A total of 35 species of m arine aquarium fish are col-lected by divers using SC U BA and either a sm all-

m eshed barrier net or a hand-held scoop net. O nly

five species are in regular dem and. The m ajority of

aquarium fish are caught on the reef slope in depths

ranging from 8 to 35 m etres, w ith occasional speci-

m ens taken at depths in excess of 50 m etres. The fish

are generally caught one at a tim e.

Number of aquarium fish caught in Rarotonga

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Targetspe

cies

Typically, aquarium fish are sm all,

brightly coloured, have lim ited for-

age areas, and are largely ignored in

traditional food fishing. They areshort-lived and reach reproductive

m aturity at an early age. All these

factors m ake them suitable for the

aquarium trade.

The use of dam aging collection techniques such as

sodium cyanide, quinaldine, rotenone (all of w hich

are fish anaesthetics) are not practiced by C ook

Islands aquarium fish collectors. The capture of red

haw kfish m ay require selected branches of the coral

colony to be rem oved. These branches can how ever

be re-planted.

Lemonpeel angelfish

At this stage, the five m ain fish taken from the C ook

Islands are the flam e angel (35% ) (see cover im age), redhaw kfish (30% ), ventralis (15% ), Scottsw rasse (7% )

and lem onpeel angelfish (7% ).

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Areare

striction

sIn total, less than half the coastline

of Rarotonga is used for regular

aquarium fish collecting:

There is no collection inside the

lagoon;

A reas frequented by rough

w eather conditions are seldom

fished;

The five m arine reserves (raui)

areas are no-fishing zones; and

Specific areas, set aside for tourdive operators, are not fished.

A ll these areas help to m aintain breeding popula-

tions of fish and serve to supply new recruits (larval

and adult) to replenish adjacent reef habitats.

Currently only one exporter is operating on Rarotonga

and it is considered that if there w ere a m arked increase

in aquarium fish collecting activities, further restrictions

and m anagem ent w ould need to be im posed.

The aquarium fish industry could expand to the other

southern islands although its econom ic viability w ould

need to be assessed first.

M IN ISTRY O F M A RIN E RESO U RC ESTel.: +682 28721 / 28722 / 28730

Fax: +682 29721E-m ail: rar@ m m r.gov.ck

W eb site: http://w w w .m m r.gov.ck

G O VERNM ENT O F THE CO O K ISLAN DSP.O . Box 85, Avarua, Rarotonga

C ook Islands