Community-based stock enhancement of abalone, Haliotis asinina in Sagay marine reserve: Achievements, limitations and directions

The Sagay Marine Reserve (SMR) under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) is one of the many reef areas in the Visayan Sea in the central part of the Philippine archipelago. The SMR covers 32,000 ha or 59% of coastal waters north of the mainland Sagay City. Donkey’s ear abalone is one of the most sought mollusks traded by small-scale fishers in Molocaboc Island located within the SMR. High buying prices in local and international markets compared with other fish catch motivated fishers to target abalone and caused its overfishing. SEAFDEC/AQD, with support from the Government of Japan Trust Fund (JTF), conducted a community-based stock enhancement through a tri-party collaboration between the fisherfolks of Molocaboc Island, the Sagay local government at the village and city levels, and SEAFDEC/AQD. The study showed that the decision and implementation of stock enhancement and the definition of its objectives and relevance involves the strong engagement with stakeholders. For over a period of eight years (2007-2014), we learned that stock enhancement necessarily involve high financial investments and enormous transaction cost over a long period of time which are often not affordable to local governments of coastal communities in Southeast Asia. Thus, community-based collaborations may help achieve enhancement and restocking goals.The authors thank the SEAFDEC/AQD and the GOJ-TF for the support and funds provided to this study (8100-T-FD-SE0206 and SE01-M2010T); the Molocaboc fisherfolks organized as BFARMC; and the local government of Sagay City through the PAMB-SMR and the staff of SEAFDEC/AQD abalone hatchery

Social preparations towards community-based approach to stock enhancement in Sagay Marine Reserve, Philippines

Stock enhancement involves a set of management approaches which include the release of hatchery-produced aquatic organisms to enhance or restore fisheries. Stock enhancement of various species has a long history in developed countries and it showed that releases have the potential to yield substantial benefits for various fishery stakeholders. While the biological objectives of stock enhancement were often successfully achieved in most of these enhancement initiatives, some results showed that actual social gains in terms of yields, distribution of benefits and institutional sustainability are often inconclusive. The high cost of stocking accrues to the government which means these are supported by public funds. Meanwhile, benefits are dissipated across various stakeholders, some of them did not at all contribute and participate in the stocking program. In such government-initiated and publicly-funded stock enhancement programs, the lack of sense of stewardship among direct fishery stakeholders was observed to have contributed to a vicious cycle of excessive extraction of fishery resources for individual economic benefits. Developing countries such as the Philippines would be confronted by budgetary limitations if it has to adopt the stocking strategies applied in developed countries. Thus, with reference to the success of co-management approaches for managing fishery resources in the Philippines, a community-based strategy for enhancement of fishery stocks was explored. SEAFDEC/AQD, with support from the Government of Japan Trust Fund, initiated a community-based approach to stock enhancement in Molocaboc, an island barangay or village within the Sagay Marine Reserve (SMR). The initiative aims to ensure that its goals and strategies are within the social milieu of local stakeholders, i.e. fisherfolks are without financial assets to contribute or pay for the enhancement of the fishery and stock enhancement is often not a priority approach to address fishery resource depletion for most local governments. However, the social assets of fishing communities could be explored to implement stock enhancement. This paper describes the social preparation executed from 2007 to 2011 in order to orient a fishing community such as Molocaboc towards a successful enhancement of overfished species. Initially, the project focused on donkey s ear abalone Haliotis asinina to provide an example for other species. Abalone or kapinan in the vernacular is one of the over-extracted fishery resources in Sagay City. It is one of the high-priced catch among fishers in coastal communities in the Philippines. High buying prices compared with other fish catch motivated small-scale fishers to target abalones and caused its overfishing

Stock enhancement of abalone, Haliotis asinina, in multi-use buffer zone of Sagay Marine Reserve in the Philippines

Donkey's ear abalone (Haliotis asinina) is a gourmet seafood export of the Philippines but its wild stock is at risk due to high fishing pressure. This paper aims to show evidences that abalone seeds produced in hatcheries can be used to rehabilitate its fisheries in multi-use buffer zones of marine reserves. This study released hatchery-reared abalone juveniles in a community-based resource enhancement site located in multi-use reef surrounding Molocaboc. This island is populated by fisherfolks who participated in protecting the 4000 m2 coralline release site. Molocaboc Reef comprise the buffer zone of Sagay Marine Reserve in Negros Occidental province in central Philippines. Data obtained during monthly monitoring of the release site from 2011 to 2016 showed that hatchery-reared abalone established together with its wild counterparts. Baseline wild abalone catch per unit effort (CPUE = 3 divers 1 h fishing) is 0.005/100 m2 in 2011. Mean monthly CPUE after release increased to 53 hatchery-reared and wild individuals combined. The mean shell length, body weight and body mass index of the hatchery-reared individuals (6.4 cm, 70.9 g, 10.5 g/cm) is not significantly different from those of the recovered wild stocks (6.9 cm, 85.0 g, 12.0 g/cm). The stocks recovered in the midst of undisrupted fishing activities in areas immediately outside and beyond the release site. Thus, mass production of seeds of overfished species is advised to repopulate degraded fisheries, improve catch of fisherfolks living within buffer areas of marine reserves and contribute to production and trade of high-value species