Title:	The tuna livebait fishery in North Ari Atoll
Authors:	Jauharee, Ahmed Riyaz
Issue Date:	2020
Publisher:	IUCN The Government of Maldives in collaboration with USAID
Citation:	Jauharee. A.R. (2020).The tuna livebait fishery in North Ari Atoll. IUCN and the Government of Maldives in collaboration with USAID
Description:	This North- Ari Livebait report is an initiative under the REGENERATE project implemented by IUCN to map the livebait fishery resources, its utilization, fishing grounds and fishing methods practiced by North-Ari fishers. Although livebait fishery is the most important fishery in the Maldives, proper mapping of livebait resources including fishing grounds has never been done till now. This is the first attempt to map livebait resources and its utilization in one atoll of the Maldives. The information used in this atlas is gathered mainly through fisher interviews and fisheries related statistics obtained from fishers. Both tuna and reef fishers in North-Ari atoll use livebait for fishing. The livebait is harvested around reefs across the atoll at night and during the day. The pole-and-line fishers targeting tuna use very small bait fish such as silver sprat (Spratelloides gracilis), blue sprat (Spratelloides delicatulus) anchovy (Encrasicholina heteroloba) and cardinal fishes (Apagonidae) while the handline fishers who catch large tuna (>80cm FL) use round scad (Decapterus macarellus), bigeye scad (Selar crumenopthalamus) and red-tooth trigger fish (Odonus niger) as bait. Reef fishers also harvest relatively large bait fish similar to those used by the handline tuna fishers. The bait fish are caught using large rectangular lift nets (about 80 x 70 feet) operated from the fishing vessels. During the day bait is attracted on to the submerged net using chum. At night bait are aggregated under the boat with the help of powerful lights (2000W to 6000W). Net is then lowered into the water and spread beneath the aggregation. The bait net is pulled to the surface with the help of ropes attached to the sides of the net. North-Ari has rich livebait fishing grounds thus attracting several fishers from other parts of the country to harvest livebait from this atoll. On average fishers collect about 150kg of livebait for each fishing trip. When bait is abundant, large vessels may harvest more than 500kg of livebait. It is estimated that 10,000 Mt of livebait are harvested from the reefs across the Maldives every year. Several fishers acknowledge sightings or interaction with endangered, threatened or protected species during livebait fishing operations. Organisms such as turtles, sharks and dolphins are sighted at the bait fishing grounds while sometimes rays and whale sharks do enter the bait nets as the fishers haul the net. Plankton feeders such as manta rays and whale sharks are attracted to the large volume of plankton aggregated under the lights used during night bait fishing. Similar to any other open access fishery, if the livebait fishery is not managed properly, the livebait resources in the Maldives can be overharvested and could result in stock depletion. To properly manage this fishery it is important to successfully implement the existing data collection mechanisms; map catch trends at atoll level and use the data collected to produce annual reports that would help identify depletion of catch across the country. In addition discourage alternative use of livebait including the sale of baitfish species at the local markets; prevent introduction of any new bait fishing gear without approval by MoFA; effectively enforce the regulations on marine protected areas and if severe declining of livebait resources be evident more exclusion zones should be set up and size limits on baits and lights used for bait fishing should be in place
URI:	http://saruna.mnu.edu.mv/jspui/handle/123456789/14003
Appears in Collections:	މަސްވެރިކަން Fisheries

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