Indonesian Reef Fisheries Have 3 Years Left At Current Exploitation Rates

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — "An insatiable appetite for live reef fish in Asian restaurants is ravaging aquatic stocks in Indonesia, damaging reefs, and threatening the sustainability of a $1 billion industry in the region, a conservation group said.

The use of toxic cyanide and hooks to catch the fish could exhaust Indonesian waters of the most valuable species in three years, said Peter Mous of the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy.

Indonesia, which has more than 20 percent of the globe's coral reefs — more than the Atlantic, Caribbean, and eastern Pacific combined — has become the world's top supplier of wild-caught, live reef fish, cornering more than 50 percent of the Hong Kong–centered market for the luxury food item.

But that could change if measures are not taken to alter the way the industry works, said Mous, science manager at the Nature Conservancy's Bali-based South East Asia Center for Marine Protected Areas, which has begun a project to cultivate reef fish for the consumer market. "Indonesia used to be the main exporter for most species. But now, for instance, with the coral trout, most is coming from the Great Barrier Reef (in Australia), mainly because the Indonesian stocks are already gone," Mous said."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-09-01/s_26807.asp