The fishing equipment used

The fish inhabiting the coral reef have always been caught and used as food by the inhabitants, but they started  not very long ago to be marketed elsewhere. The uneven topography and the large distances between the fishing sites on the reefs have favoured the development of  family and community fisheries. The fish are captured and kept in fish ponds all over the Polynesian atolls.

The fish ponds, which used to be put together with whatever materials were available (pieces of coral and wood, woven coconut leaves, etc.), are now constructed using modern materials (iron stakes and wire netting), and measure anything up to 5 m in height and several tens of meters in length. They consist of a trapping compartment and several storage compartments, into which the fish are driven by the fishermen.

The fish ponds are located at places through which the shoals are known to pass, mainly in the hoas and narrows, but also in shallow waters ("platiers").

The species captured

Many different species are captured on the atolls. On Tikehau, for example, more than 100 species have been counted in the atoll channel fish ponds: only 50 of these species are marketed, however. The exact composition of the catches depends on the position of the fish ponds: in the narrows and channels, on the pinnacles or in shallow waters. In the Tikehau narrows, carnivorous fish account for 87% of the catch in terms of the weight, and herbivorous and omnivorous fish account for 6 to 7 %.In the fish ponds located in shallow waters, herbivorous and omnivorous fish predominate.

The average monthly production corresponding to each of the 10 main species caught on Tikehau between July 1983 and June 1987 are given in the table.

Marketing procedures and data

The catches are sold mainly on the markets of the largest and most highly populated neighbouring islands. The fish are collected as soon as the boat comes in. After being landed, they are strung up by the local men and women in bunches weighing approximately three kilos. All the species are sold at the same  mean price, which is set by agreement between the producers and buyers, apart from the small pelagic ones, which go at a lower price. As an indication, the mean price of three kg of fish was 250 FCP at the end of the '80s (2.10 € per string, which makes 0.70 € per kg). The strings of fish are then loaded onto the boat and placed on blocks of ice. As soon as the fish ponds have been emptied, which takes a day or two, the loaded boat sets off for Tahiti. Some of the shipments are also made by air. 

Fishery management

It is not easy to manage the atoll fisheries, since the fish ponds trap many species which vary greatly in size upon reaching their first reproductive cycle. The effects of the fish ponds on the stocks therefore vary depending on the species, and overall methods of management have turned out to be more appropriate than dealing with each species separately. The results of studies on the population dynamics are highly sensitive to the growth parameters and to the natural mortality rates of the fish, and both of these parameters are difficult to assess accurately in the case of tropical fish.

Most of the individuals trapped in fish ponds seem, however, to be caught while they are migrating to their reproduction grounds. Both the strongly seasonal fluctuations in the size of the catches and the data available on the size of the animals when they reach the reproductive stage for the first time confirm this assumption. It is not desirable to catch very young individuals in the fish ponds located in the narrows, although some juveniles are sometimes caught in this way. By sparing the younger members of the populations involved, the re-stocking potential of the fishing grounds is preserved.