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

3. Nationwide surveysIn May-June 2004, a nationwide survey of marine resources was undertaken by theSolomon Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, in collaboration withThe Nature Conservancy. One section of this survey specifically looked at “FisheriesResources: commercially important macroinvertebrates” (Ramohia, 2006). In thissurvey, 66 reef sites were visited, encompassing seven provinces within SolomonIslands. At each site six, 50 x 2 m swaths parallel to the reef crest and between 5 and10 m depth were examined by SCUBA divers and the number and size ofcommercially important macroinvertebrates, including blacklip pearl oysters, wasrecorded. At 63 of these sites, a further survey was undertaken of deeper sites on thereef. In that survey, five, 50 x 5 m swaths were surveyed similarly.Only 39 blacklip pearl oysters were found in this survey, 36 at shallow sites and threeat deep sites. Of the 66 shallow sites, where 600 m 2 of reef was examined, 16 sitesyielded a single oyster, five yielded 2 oysters, two four oysters and one five oysters.The low numbers found make any confident identification of preferred regionsdifficult. Of the six provinces surveyed, Western showed the highest number of siteswith oysters, and was the main province in which more than 1 shell was found at asite (Table 1). At the deep sites, only 3 yielded oysters, in each case a singlespecimen. Overall, the surveyors suggested a tendency for more shell to be found inexposed than sheltered locations. Shell size was reported in 20-mm size bands, withthe median and modal size of the 39 individuals being 140-160 mm (Figure 2).Table 1. Number of shallow (5-10 m deep) sites examined during the TNC/MFMRresource survey, that yielded blacklip pearl oysters (BL). Figure in parentheses ispercent of sites. Note total is not the sum of the provinces, as two sites were indisputed waters.ProvinceNumber ofsitessurveyedNumber ofsites withBL (%)Number ofsites with>1 BL (%)Central 9 3 (33) 1 (11)Isabel 12 3 (25) 0Choiseul 8 3 (37) 0Western 13 8 (61)) 4 (31)Makira 10 3 (30) 0Malaita 10 2 (20) 1 (10)Guadalcanal 4 0 0Total 66 24(36) 8 (12)3