Na Vuku Makawa ni Qoli: Indigenous Fishing Knowledge (IFK) in Fiji and the Pacific

Salanieta Kitolelei,Joeli Veitayaki,Annette Breckwoldt,Susanna Piovano,Randy Thaman

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.684303

Abstract

The time-tested Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) of Fiji and the Pacific Islands is seriously threatened due to the commercialization of fishing, breakdown of traditional communal leadership and oral knowledge transmission systems, modern education, and the movement of the younger generations to urban areas for work and/or study. Consequently, IFK, which has been orally transmitted for generations, has either been lost, not learned by the current generation, or remains undocumented. This study focuses on the critical need to conserve and include IFK as a basis for assessing the conservation status of ecologically and culturally keystone fisheries species as a basis for planning site-specific management of marine and freshwater fisheries in Fiji and the Pacific Islands. The study reviews studies of the last two and a half centuries on IFK from Fiji and elsewhere in the small oceanic islands of the Pacific, as a basis for the conservation, documentation and intergenerational transfer of this knowledge as the foundation for sustainable fisheries management. The study also reviews: the nature and conservation status of IFK, itself; and the conservation status of species considered to be of particular ecological and cultural importance; reasons for the loss of species/taxa and associated knowledge and practices; and actions that can be taken to address this loss.

Highlights

Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) has been fundamental to environmental, cultural and livelihood sustainability of Pacific peoples for millennia
This review examines on how Pacific Island fishers perceive, exploit and protect their ecological and cultural keystone species by using IFK
The documented IFK which was reviewed for the Pacific began in the 1700’s with Captain James Cook’s voyages, and include some of the up-todate studies of Pacific Islands fisheries, such as the late Robert Johannes’ classic study Words of the Lagoon (1981), an in-depth chronicle of the IFK of Palau; Hooper et al.’s work with Tokelau elders, Echoes at Fishermen’s Rock, a traditional Tokelau Fishing (2012); Thaman, Balawa, and Fong’s 2014 case study of the return of marine biodiversity to Vanua Navakavu, Fiji; and Thaman’s IFK and modern scientific knowledge (MSK) integration study Te ika o Tuvalu mo Tokelau Fishes of Tuvalu and Tokelau (2015)

Summary

Introduction

Indigenous fishing knowledge (IFK) has been fundamental to environmental, cultural and livelihood sustainability of Pacific peoples for millennia. Some of the early writings were at times trivial or inaccurate descriptions made from onboard vessels or in brief interactions with Pacific fishers (BoddamWhetham, 1876; Nordhoff, 1930; Mitchell, 1979). While these initial observations were conducted through a Western lens, observers universally acknowledged the wealth and depth of IFK (Johannes, 1981; D’Arcy, 2006)

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