An assessment of local fisheries in Diego-Suarez Bay, Madagascar

Table 3. Fishermen’s opinion on resource use in Diego-Suarez Bay (n=40)
Question
Fishing should be restricted to specific areas 22 28 11 39 0
Use fishing nets with > 4 cm mesh 33 44 17 6 0
Communities should work together on resource use 39 39 11 11 0
Deforestation in coastal areas should be stopped 50 39 0 6 6
Only catch large fish 50 44 6 0 0
Do nothing specific, there is enough fish 0 56 6 33 6
Fish on certain days 22 61 6 6 6
A fisherman should decide himself how much fish he catches 22 56 11 11 0
Pray or ask ancestors for more fish 11 44 28 17 0
The government in Diego should control fish catch size 6 33 33 17 11
Eat less fish 33 17 33 6 11
Only catch certain fish species 17 39 28 17 0
Village chief should control the size of fish catches 28 56 11 0 6
Get more tourists to the bay as an alternative source of income 39 44 6 11 0
In response to whether fishing has an impact on the environment 78% of fishermen said it did have an
impact and 28% said it had no impact. The majority of fishermen stated that there were fadys associated
with fishing in Diego-Suarez Bay (71%).
Responses to questions on how best to ensure the availability of marine resources for future generations
varied with no outstanding universal answer for each question (table 3). The majority of people strongly
agreed that deforestation in coastal areas should be stopped and only large fish should be caught. The
greater part of fishermen agreed that: fishing nets with > 4 cm mesh should be used; nothing specific
should be done as there is enough fish; only go out fishing on certain days; a fisherman should decide
himself how much fish he catches; pray or ask ancestors for more fish; only certain fish species should be
caught; the village chief should control the size of fish catches, communities should work together on
resource use and more tourists should be taken to the bay as an alternative source of income. Most
disagreed that fishing should be restricted to specific areas. There was a split majority opinion on two
questions: 1. The government in Diego should control fish catch size (33% agree and neutral) and 2. Eat
less fish (33% strongly agree and neutral), eating more zebu (a species of domestic tropical cattle) was
mentioned by some fishermen as an alternative.
3.2 Resource Status and visual observations
3.2.1 Line Intercept Transect (LIT)
The relationship between mean hard coral cover and number of fishing vessels at each sector (figure 8)
was tested using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. There was no association between hard coral
cover and number of fishing vessels (rs = 0.414, n=17, p > 0.05).
3.2.2 Underwater Visual Census (UVC)
Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was also used to test if there was an association between mean
fish biomass vs. number of fishing vessels, mean fish species richness vs. number of fishing vessels and
mean number of fish counted vs. number of fishing vessels (fish biomass, mean fish species richness and
mean number of fish counted data only available from January 2008 to December 2008 for sectors 0-5,
Nosy Fano, Nosy Koba and Nosy Langoro). There was an association between mean fish biomass vs.
number of fishing vessels (rs = 0.708, n = 9, p < 0.05) (figure 9). However no association was found for
the other two tests (fish species richness vs. number of fishing vessels, rs = 0.225, n = 9, p > 0.05; mean
number of fish counted vs. number of fishing vessels rs = 0.225, n = 9, p > 0.05).
Strongly
agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
10