The presentation was part of the Brussels Development Briefing on the topic of fish-farming, organized by the Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), the European Commission, and the African, Carribean, and Pacific (ACP) Secretariat on 3rd of July 2013 in Brussels. More on: http://brusselsbriefings.net/

1. Brussels Development Briefing n.32
Fish-farming the new driver of the blue
economy?
3rd July 2013
http://brusselsbriefings.net
Aquaculture development trends and
successes in the Pacific.
Timothy Pickering, SPC

2. AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT TRENDS AND
SUCCESSES IN THE PACIFIC
Tim Pickering
SPC Aquaculture Section
Suva, Fiji Islands
Brussels Policy Briefing no. 32
Fish-farming: the new driver of the blue economy?
3rd July 2013
Organised by CTA, the EC/DECVO, the ACP Secretariat and Concord

3. Purpose
To provide ACP-EU policy-makers and representatives of EU
Member States, civil society groups, research networks and
development practitioners, and international organizations
based in Brussels with a briefing on:
1. Successes and opportunities for the Pacific islands countries
and territories (PICTs) in aquaculture development;
2. Key challenges in developing aquaculture, and;
3. Responses and initiatives within the Pacific region that are
deserving of international support.

4. SPC Aquaculture Section
(i) maintains a regional network of contacts to exchange
ideas, overviews and experiences on aquaculture issues
both regionally and internationally
(ii) supports through targeted training and technology transfer
the establishment of environmentally and economically
sustainable aquaculture enterprises by Pacific government
departments and/or private sector
(iii) provides a regional support service to help members
assess, manage and mitigate the potential impacts of
aquaculture, including exotic introductions and quarantine.

5. 1. OPPORTUNITIES FOR PICTs
• Pacific islands region is geographically of a similar
scale as Africa
• PICT’s have much fewer people, but a LOT more
water!
• Our people are fish eaters – strong domestic market
base for aquaculture

6. Pacific regional characteristics
 Small land area, a lot of
ocean and reef
 Hotspot of diversity in biota
and culture
 Some PICTs have significant
inland populations (PNG)
 Many PICTs have small
populations (e.g. 1000 pax)
 PICTs place high priority on
aquaculture for sustainable
development
 Aquaculture will never be
“big” like Asia, but can have
a big impact in small
economies EEZs of SPC-member Pacific Island Countries and
Territories (PICTs)

7. Successes
• PICT aquaculture is
worth around USD 200 -
250 million per year in
total
• Dominated by blacklip
pearl and marine shrimp
(90% of value).
• Dominated by 3 places;
French Polynesia, New
Caledonia, and Papua
New Guinea (tilapia)

8. Successes
• Kappaphycus seaweed
culture is well
established in the
outer-island provinces
of Kiribati, Fiji, PNG and
Solomon Islands
• Low in value, but high in
socio-economic impact
in small-island micro-
economies.

9. Successes
• Nile tilapia is being
cultured mainly in Papua
New Guinea and Fiji, and
also Cook
Islands, Samoa, American
Samoa, Vanuatu, Guam, Sa
ipan and Northern
Marianas.
• As coastal fish become
scarce, consumers are
increasingly accepting of
tilapia

10. Successes
• Freshwater prawn
Macrobrachium is being
cultured commercially in
Fiji
• Hatchery technology now
being transferred to Papua
New Guinea and Vanuatu
with SPC assistance

11. Emerging commodities
• Marine ornamentals like
coral and live-
rock, clownfish Vanuatu
• Mud crab, spiny lobster
• Sea cucumber (beche-de-
mer) re-stocking trials
underway in Fiji, New
Caledonia, Solomon
Islands, Kiribati.
Kappaphycus seaweed production
in Fiji Islands

12. Food security
• Culture of lower-value
fish for food security is
gaining higher priority
• Reason is decline in the
coastal fisheries with
which PICTs were once
blessed
• Drivers are overfishing
due to population
increase, and impacts
on coral reefs of climate
change.
Tilapia Milkfish

13. • Small-pond aquaculture of
lower-trophic-level fish like
tilapia or milkfish is one of
three major strategies to
help close a widening “fish
gap”:
– increased local landings
of tuna catch in PICTs
– low-cost inshore Fish
Aggregation Devices
– small-pond aquaculture
• Small-ponds deliver fresh
fish right to the doorstep

14. Pacific progress
Compared with two decades ago:
• At least 5 commodities are able to make money
• Aquaculture facilities are now established
• People are now trained
• We have a track record of successes and failures from
which lessons can be learned
• Peoples’ liking for freshwater fish is increasing.
• There are regional technical programmes, and regional
training opportunities (SPC, USP, private-sector).

15. Opportunities
• Sites for aquaculture are plentiful.
• High biodiversity and many unique species
• Largely disease-free status due to isolation
• Small-scale livelihoods opportunities for
communities are contained within larger aquaculture
businesses (e.g. pearl spat catching, pearl
handicrafts, custodianship of re-stocked sea
cucumbers, etc).
• Small niche-market opportunities for exports of
unique species

16. 2. CHALLENGES
“Least aquaculturally developed”
• Globally the oceanic Pacific comes last of any FAO
statistical region in terms of aquaculture production
and value
• Within the Pacific region, two territories out of 16
PICTs account for more than 90% of value
• Yet the Pacific region has vast aquatic resource
potentials

17. Challenges
• The Pacific has been slow to turn “potential” into
“production”. (Not due to lack of support from
governments or donors).
• There is a tyranny of distance and scale that makes it hard
to compete internationally via exports. But we can surely
reduce imports?
• R&D has been too much on fish and not enough on people.
• Not enough emphasis on private sector uptake.
• Govt depts. need to better clarify their roles, and create
environments for private investment (where-ever possible).

18. • Availability of farm inputs is a major constraint
(feed, seed, capital, equipment)
• Export markets are distant (only pearl is unaffected
by this)
• Domestic markets are relatively small (there are
some exceptions, e.g. Fiji, PNG).
• Marine finfish remain difficult (even for SE Asia) due
to complex life histories and tricky larval phases.
• Indigenous freshwater finfish have marine
ancestry, therefore complex life histories, tricky larval
phases
• PICTs have unique species, that export markets are
quite unfamiliar with (they want shrimp, sea bass)

19. Main cross-cutting issues*
• Biosecurity
species introductions
aquatic animal diseases
• National planning for aquaculture
• Aquaculture statistics
• Economic assessments and marketing
(particularly barriers to market access).
*Identified in regional consultations jointly facilitated by SPC and FAO

20. Biosecurity
• Pacific does not have a long
tradition of aquaculture
whereby local species have
been domesticated
• Pressure to introduce
species from elsewhere.
• To develop, yet also protect
biodiversity in PICTs, there
is a strong need for
responsible practices.
• Regional capacity in
biosecurity is very limited

21. Top-5 aquaculture commodities in PICTs
• Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus
• Freshwater prawn Macrobrachium
rosenbergii
• Seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii
• Blacklip pearl Pinctada margeritifera
• Marine shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris

22. Biodiversity and Food Security
• Internationally there are tensions and contradictions
emerging between:
– the need to produce more fish for food security through
fisheries and aquaculture, and
– the potential effects of fisheries and aquaculture
development on biodiversity.
• International initiatives to protect aquatic biodiversity
typically call for
– reductions in the amount of fishing, and/or
– only local species to be used for aquaculture.
• International initiatives to protect food security call for
– fisheries production to be sustained or increased, and
– use of the most efficient varieties for aquaculture.

23. Biosecurity and barriers to trade
• Efforts were made by PICTs through SPC in 2009 to highlight the
importance of the marine ornamental trade, and to comply with
new EC disease regulations.
• E.g. derogation was successfully sought by SPC from the EU
requirements that all live-aquatic exporting countries be
members of OIE (because only 5 PICTs are OIE members!) and all
consignments be accompanied by a disease certificate.
• SPC is now assisting these countries to comply with EU
requirement that non-OIE countries be able (through WAHIS) to
carry out reporting that meets OIE standards in order to export.
• MESSAGE: EU requirements need to carefully consider
unexpected yet avoidable impacts upon “micro-states” ability to
comply.

24. Aquatic animal health
– SPC is increasingly interested in the work of the FAO and of
the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health
– E.g. to improve inter-regional and international links for
rapid-response testing for crustacean virus outbreaks
– the Pacific region has very limited capacity to detect and
manage diseases of aquatic organisms
– The Pacific currently has no formal networks in place to
enable timely detection of disease

25. National planning and governance
• Most PICTs lack the strategic governance framework
required for aquaculture development
– no aquaculture legislation
– complex marine tenure systems
– no formal processes to allocate space or consider
objections
• Most PICTs have Aquaculture Development Plans
which define R&D, training, and economic
priorities, but they do not address legislative issues.
• Many past aquaculture projects were initiated
without sound assessments of economic viability

26. Statistics: Indicators of progress
• Aquaculture statistics and indicators of contributions
to food security, livelihoods and GDP are very
difficult to collect in the Pacific, and has not been
systematic
• Aquaculture sections of PICT governments find it
hard to make a case for allocation of budgets and
resources to support their sector
• Much more effort needs to be put into
collecting, storing and disseminating statistics for
PICT aquaculture
production, value, livelihoods, gender

27. Reduce reliance upon subsidy
• Small household level aquaculture for subsistence
consumption is only viable with on-going government support
and subsidy of farm inputs
• Even so, household aquaculture for food security is seen as
important - governments continue to support it
• The next challenge is to add a layer of viable SME-scale
commercial-market aquaculture for peri-urban markets
• Farm clusters, lead farmers, are promising strategies in Africa
and Asia – these are only now being adopted in the Pacific
• Need to boost the commercial angle of “aquaculture as a
business” as much as possible, and avoid subsidy *EU IACT+
• LESSON: Aquaculture is more suited to commercial than
artisanal approaches – the “inputs” need to be paid for.

28. Climate change
• Mariculture will be
adversely affected over
next 100yrs by seawater
acidification, warming, an
d storminess
• PICT mariculture can
adapt (to an extent), but
profit margins will be
reduced

29. Climate change
• Freshwater aquaculture among
high-island PICTs will be a
“winner” of climate
change, due to projected
warming and increased rainfall
in SW Pacific
• Freshwater aquaculture for
food security and livelihoods
can itself be an adaptation to
the effects of climate change on
coastal fisheries

30. Open ocean cage culture
• Governance arrangements for high seas sea cage
farming are not yet clear
• PICTs have a lot of ocean “real estate” within EEZs for
sea cage farming.
• PICTs need advice: in what way can we engage in sea
cage farming to derive maximum benefits from it?
• PICTs would be concerned about a “race for space”
whereby ocean cage aquaculture becomes locked up
by those nations currently with the technical capacity
to develop this new sector (international-law
parallels with seabed mining)

31. 3. Pacific responses
• SPC has associate membership of Network of
Aquaculture Centres of Asia-Pacific NACA, on behalf
of PICTs, and has MOU with OIE
• SPC and FAO are collaborating with PICTs on
improved regional arrangements for
– aquaculture networks
– biosecurity
– statistics
• PICTs are formalizing national aquaculture plans, and
some are developing aquaculture legislation

32. Pacific regional aquaculture network
– SPC and FAO have jointly developed a Regional
Aquaculture Action Plan [in press] to coordinate and
target agencies’ engagement in the Pacific
– The Plan has specific actions which will now need
resourcing to improve the level of aquaculture
governance and development in the Pacific islands
region

33. • FAO and SPC are now looking for resources and appropriate
mechanisms to implement the identified national or regional
activities
– Assist in the development of a regional biosecurity
framework to include an assessment of capacity and
performance survey
– Capacity building for fisheries and aquaculture statistics
(collection and reporting at national level)
– Establish PICTs sub-regional aquaculture networks (e.g.
Micronesia network as a starting point) and strengthen
collaboration with other regions (i.e. through
NACA, SEAFDEC, WFC, etc.)
(additional development partner support is invited)

34. Other priority actions across PICTs
(additional development partner support is invited)
• Economic assessments: urgently increase capacity to assess the
economic viability of aquaculture projects
• Feed and seed – a central distribution centre (“regional hub”) for
PICTs?
• Legislation – assistance with drafting, and provision of model-law
templates
• “Bricks&mortar” construction/upgrade of aquaculture
infrastructure is needed to increase capacity in biosecurity (but
most development partners prefer to only fund training
workshops)
• Export-market jurisdictions to please be mindful of inadvertent
heavy-handed impacts of new import-regulation requirements on
PICT “micro-economies”

35. Promoting a business-like approach
• SPC is implementing the EU-funded Increasing
Agriculture Commodity Trade IACT project, which
has an aquaculture component.
• This enables engagement directly with enterprises to
over-come technical and business-literacy capacity
constraints
• IACT is a new approach for SPC, which normally
works through counterpart government ministries.

36. Outlook for Pacific islands aquaculture
• Pacific islands aquaculture will always be small by global
standards
• Within micro-economies, a small amount of aquaculture
can have a large impact in peoples’ lives
• There are clear aquaculture successes in our region
• Aquaculture governance needs to be improved in PICTs
• Best success occurs if aquaculture is run as a business
• Lessons from Africa and Asia, applied to the Pacific, will
ensure that the contribution of aquaculture to food
security, livelihoods, climate change adaptation, and
exports will continue to increase.

37. Thank you