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

Page 13The draft Regulations also specify the conditions of the licence that may relate, but are notlimited, to:• the species of fish or aquatic life to be bred, farmed, cultured or held;• the stages of the lifecycle of fish or aquatic organism at which the same may be kept;• limitation of the quantity of fish or aquatic life that may be kept or sold;• the method of water discharge or waste disposal;• the location of the aquaculture facilities;• limitation of the use of chemicals or drugs, if any;• a requirement for the lodgement of a guarantee or security to cover the cost of damagethat may be caused by the operation of the aquaculture facility.The licence is not transferable. The Director may review, vary or alter the conditions of thelicence, or temporarily suspend a particular condition. Under specific circumstances, theDirector may cancel, revoke or suspend the licence. Any person aggrieved by such a decisionof the Director, or the decision not to issue or renew the licence, may appeal to the Ministerwithin 30 days following receipt of the notification of such decision.In addition to the licensing requirement, all aquaculture facilities and equipment must bebuilt, installed or constructed to standards approved by the Director of Fisheries. Forexample, all facilities need to have an effluent reservoir in which wastewater is to be treatedbefore discharge. The Regulations also require biological (as opposed to chemical) means ofeffluent treatment to be used unless circumstances render it costly or impractical. TheDirector may impose conditions to the aquaculture licence relating to the method of waterdischarge or waste disposal. After inspection of the facility, the Director may issue acertificate certifying the facility as fit and proper for aquaculture activities. Without thiscertificate it is prohibited to culture aquatic organisms in the facility.As noted these draft Regulations are not yet in force, but there is the possibility that they maybe gazetted in the near future, as an interim measure until the new Fisheries Legislation isready. The draft Regulations provide a useful model which has been used during the presentstudy in the drafting of a specific Pearl Farming Regulation for consideration by Government.Only one commercial aquaculture operation has been licensed in Solomon Islands in the lastfew years, a land-based prawn farm on Guadalcanal, which is no longer operating. Becauseof the absence of appropriate licensing mechanisms, this was licensed as a fish processingestablishment. The only other aquaculture licence thought to have been issued in SolomonIslands was to ICLARM (now the WorldFish Center) in the early 1990s for communityaquaculture projects supported by that organisation based on the grow-out and export of giantclams produced in the WorldFish hatchery.A revised version of the Fisheries Regulations was prepared in 2003, but for various reasonshas never been gazetted. The existing Regulations are likely to be superseded as part of theongoing review of the Fisheries Act. Like the 1998 Fisheries Act, the new draft Act as itcurrently stands pays only limited attention to aquaculture. There is a need to strengthen theaquaculture provisions of the new Act prior to its finalisation, and to ensure that aquaculturein general, and pearl farming in particular, are adequately covered in regulations or othersubsidiary legislation. Representations and recommendations are being provided to thereview team to this effect.