By Tommy Esau, Research Worker
In May 2015, Chief Esau Kekeubata from the Atoifi Health Research Group joined Dr Simon Foale from the Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology, James Cook University to do a small study of how fishers in Malaita think about the status of their fisheries. Simon studies fish and how people in Melanesia eat, use and manage fish and fish habitats. He has been to the Solomon Islands a number of times, working in Marovo, Western Province and Langalanga, Malaita Province.
Simon and Esau was also accompanied by Matt Young from James Cook University who is comparing the things that motivate spearfisherman in Australia and Solomon Islands (and honing his Pijin!), supervised by Simon.
“It was indeed a pleasure and a privileged to work with Esau on Kwai and Ngongosila islands,” said Simon. “I am also very grateful to Esau for facilitating the transport across from Auki, it looks like we were lucky to get there and back, as the road was in bad shape, but fortunately the rain slowed down enough and by the time we got there the rivers were all passable.”
Fishers spend a lot of time observing fish and as a result they have a rich knowledge of fish behaviour and ecology – where fish go to different times of the day, months, years and what might be their reasons for movement. Scientists also know fish behaviour and ecology.
Simon explained, “Science and traditional knowledge are complementary and together we can achieve better understanding of fish population, dynamics, especially as human population increase, and fishing pressures also increases.”
The data that he was collecting included answers to questions about what fish eat, where they sleep, whether the populations are increasing or decreasing (or neither) and to what extent fishing is affecting fish population. Simon also documented language names for fish. There is interesting knowledge about fish encoded in names. For example, one of the Kwai – Ngongosila names for the crocodile long tom (Tylosurus crocodilus) is ‘Fure waneasi’, which means ‘Cuts the sea snake.’ This names informs us that the fish likes to attack sea snakes, something that most scientists are unlikely to know.
Simon also collected data on what fish people were eating so a list of fish species that are important for subsistence can be compiled. This information can be combined with scientist’s knowledge about the growth-rates and life-spans of different species of fish to get an idea of fishing pressures. If the diet is dominated by short-lived and fast growing species like Sau tofungana (Island bonito), buma and katukatu, when we know that fishing pressure is probably quite high.
The community of Kwai and Ngongosila were happy to share knowledge with Simon and they reiterated that look forward to continue this relationship with Simon in the future.
Findings from this research will be available soon. Please contact Dr Simon Foale simon.foale@jcu.edu.au or Chief Esau Kekeubata on esaukekeubata@gmail.com for more information.
Photo (L-R): Simon Foale, Esau Kekeubata and Matt Young on Ngongosila island
(Photo supplied by Simon Foale)
