Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Fiji - the End Game?

Bull Sharks in the SRMR - hopefully soon protected throughout Fiji!

Looks like it's crunch time.

A submission for the Fiji Shark Sanctuary shall be ready this month.
Then, Cabinet may approve it, or it may send it back for amendments, or for even more consultations like it has done last December. Please do check out the Fiji Shark Defenders page where you may, or may not be asked to lend your support.

This time, I am really hopeful.
Everybody including the Tuna industry has had a chance to state their views and I firmly believe that the Department of Fisheries is going to duly consider them in their submission.

And then comes the difficult part.
There will be a need for awareness campaigns, capacity building, monitoring, enforcement and prosecution - and above all, for finding the resources to pay for that all. The way I see it, the latter will very much depend on the exact wording of any decree. The more exceptions and loopholes it contains, the more people will cheat and the more difficult and expensive it will be to implement.

Keep watching this space for any further developments.
Fingers crossed!

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