Stimulating investment in pearl farming in ... - World Fish Center

Page 12fisheries-related activities. The Act is currently (late 2008) under review, but until newlegislation is fully adopted will continue to apply to any prospective pearl farming activities.The Act provides the basic legal framework from which other subsidiary controls can bederived but in itself has minimal direct application to the overall control of aquaculture. TheAct does not distinguish aquaculture from other fishing methods or fisheries, and theapplicability of some provisions to aquaculture control is unclear. The Act does howeverhave certain relevant provisions, as follows:• Section 31, Aquaculture Operations, requires the written permission of the Director ofFisheries, with or without conditions, for the setting up and operation of anaquaculture activity. Conditions that may be specified with a written approval dealwith issues such as ‘the location of the aquaculture facilities and its operation, theprevention of the spread of communicable fish diseases, the inspection of aquaculturesites and the provision of statistical information’. Contravention of the provisions ofthis section invokes a penalty of up to SI$ 100,000 on conviction.• Section 32, Import and Export of Live Fish, prevents the import or export of live fishwithout the Director’s permission. The section imposes an assessment on the possibleimpacts of imported live fish being released into the wild. Contravention of theprovisions of this section invokes a penalty of up to SI$ 500,000 on conviction.Provisions for further aquaculture control come in the form of ‘regulation making powers’under Section 59, Minister’s Powers to Make Regulations, under which the Minister mayregulate, in general, any fishery activity in need of or requiring control for management anddevelopment purposes. Section 59(1)(xiv) specifically empowers the Minister to regulate thecultivation of seaweed and other aquatic organisms, and Section 59(1)(xv) empowers thelicensing of fish farms and regulation of the importation of live fish.Draft Aquaculture Regulations were developed by the MFMR Aquaculture Division andsubsequently included as Part 2 of the draft Fisheries Regulations (2003). They were intendedto apply to the farming of a range of species, including Pinctada margaritifera, P. maximaand Pteria penguin. The draft Regulations describe aquaculture licensing procedure andimpose penalties upon violation of the licensing requirement. No licence is required for ‘anytraditional practice of breeding, farming, culturing, taking or holding of live fish or aquaticorganism the purpose of which is for subsistence, personal or traditional use only’ and‘farming which is done by a local or a local community on a small scale and for subsistencepurposes only’. Despite providing a detailed and useful basis for aquaculture management,the Fisheries Regulations 2003 have never been gazetted and are therefore not in force.Under the provisions of the draft Regulations, any application for a licence should contain thefollowing information:• details of the species, stage of the life cycle and quantity of the aquatic organism to bebred, farmed, cultured or held;• plans relating to the construction, development or modification of an aquaculturefacility to which the application relates;• details of the location of the aquaculture facility and of all places, if applicable, atwhich the applicant intends to breed, hold, rear, process or sell fish or aquatic life;• details of the gear, tools or equipment that the applicant intends to use to take fish oraquatic life;• approvals required under any other law, and;• such other information as may be required by the Director.