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

Page 22Much of this work will have to be carried out by SCUBA divers, who will also be needed onan ongoing basis for inspection and maintenance of the underwater parts of the farm. Otherongoing work involves the making and deployment of spat collectors, chaplets, new farmlines, and maintaining boats and outboards. Once the farm has shell under culture, they needto be cleaned every 3-4 months. This involves hauling the shell onboard a boat or barge andscraping or scrubbing off any fouling organisms that have accumulated, then transporting thewaste back to shore for dumping.The amount of labour required at different stages of the farm’s operation will depend on thesize of the installation and the number of shell under culture. A mid-size farm with 50-100,000 shell under culture may require 4-6 full-time labourers and two SCUBA divers, withadditional help needed during busy seasons. It would be normal and appropriate for theseworkers to be sourced from the local community, including SCUBA divers, who should betrained to professional standards by the company. It would also be normal for SolomonIslanders, preferably from the local community if this is possible, to be employed as foremenor middle-level farm managers. While not an appropriate subject for inclusion in aquacultureregulations, policy should dictate that pearl farmers would not be eligible for work permitsallowing foreign staff to work in these positions.The same is not true in regard to seeding technicians. The entire business operation dependson the qualities and abilities of these individuals, who are in fact not mere technicians butqualified and highly experienced veterinary surgeons. In other countries localisation policieshave forced pearl farmers to hire locally trained technicians who have generally performedless well than foreign personnel, resulting in higher levels of shell mortality and pearlrejection, and lower pearl quality. In addition, the decline in pearl quality and increase inblack marketing of pearls in French Polynesia and Cook Islands has been attributed in part tothe increase in local technicians working in the industry. Solomon Islanders should beencouraged to undertake training as seeding technicians, and to sell their servicescompetitively on the free market. However any attempt by Government to force thelocalisation of this profession or regulate the use of foreign technicians will damage the pearlfarming business and act as a major deterrent to prospective investors. Government policy onpearl farming needs to clearly state that there is no intention to exclude foreign seedingtechnicians from operating in Solomon Islands in the future.6.5. Spat and shell collectionIn the start-up phase of a pearl farming project there will be a desire to establish a stock ofimplantable oysters as soon as possible by harvesting young adult shell from the wild, andthis represents another income-earning opportunity for local communities. As the farmmatures, shell will start to be sourced from spat collection or hatcheries, and the need foradults harvested from the wild will progressively decrease.Over the longer term, the greatest opportunity for local communities to benefit from pearlfarming activities in their area will be through spat collection, which might operate in anumber of ways:• in some situations, individuals or families build and deploy their own spat collectors,check them, harvest the spat when ready, and sell them to pearl farmers at a typicalcost of US$ 1 per spat (7-10 cm in dorso-ventral measurement);• in another situation, the pearl farming company sets its own spat collectors, butengages a women’s group from within the community to harvest and process the spat.The collectors are picked up by the company boat and taken to a simple processing