UNRE initiates Kokopo Science Café

The inaugural Kokopo Science Café hosted by PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment was a success.

More than 70 people from around the province attended the event which was staged last night at the Monsieur Henry Café. 

University Vice Chancellor Professor John Warren, who initiated the Kokopo Science Café, was impressed to see that even though it was first of its kind in East New Britain, many people have shown interest not just to attend but also to actively participate in the discussions.

While thanking everyone for attending, he also acknowledged the owner of Monsieur Henry Café, Jean Pascal Henry, for embracing the initiative and allowing the University to use his establishment to host the event.

The first presentation was by Acting Head of Fisheries Marine Resources Aisi Anas on the topic: “Are there more fish in the sea?”

Mr Aisi Anas gives his presentation.

In his presentation, Mr Anas showed from published data that the Global Fisheries Catch 1950-1999 has been declining since 1988, especially that of the Global Marine Fisheries Catches.

The data further revealed that even in specific regions of the world, commercial fisheries catches were declining.

For example, the North Atlantic, which records some of the earliest commercial fisheries activities, is seeing dramatic declines in marine fisheries. Catches peaked in 1977 after at least 200 years of commercial fishing and are now in steady decline, despite constantly increasing fishing effort.

Mr Anas also showed data that proved fishermen are now moving into fishing in deeper waters of both the coastal and high seas.

He said the scientific explanation of such trends in global fisheries development confirms Graham’s Law of Fishing model (first described in the 1920s/30s which states that: “more fishing (effort you put), does not always result in more catch”).

He said though the model showed a positive linear relationship between fishing effort and catch in the beginning of a fishery, unfortunately that relationship doesn’t continue.

“There’s a turning point. The more time you spend and the more effort put relative to increasing time, the ability to catch will decline annually and eventually a poorly managed fishery collapses,’ he said.

He said the other theory that confirms the decline of fishing is Russell’s Axiom of Fish Population Dynamics. This was also developed around the same period (1930s).

He said both mathematical models help us understand what we can do to avoid unsustainable fishing practices.

Mr Anas said PNG can learn from fishing history to improve and increase or sustain fishing stocks.

He said one good example is the Scottish Fishing Experiment.

“What they did was; they open some areas for trawl fishing and they also closed some areas within the fishing grounds. They discovered that catch per vessel had declined by 33% while fishing intensity had increased by 150%. So the conclusion was; if there is increased fishing obviously there will reduce fish abundance,” said Mr Annas.

He said the second experiment PNG fisheries can adopt is the great fishing experiment of World War 1.

“Fish became so much larger during the four years of war that the smallest fish landed after the war were larger than the modal size of fish landed before the war” he said.

He added that it was also found after the war that the weight of catch per day fished increased by 500% for the largest market category.

The WW1 also showed that the reverse could also occur: decreased fishing can allow fish abundance to increase as well as increases in sizes of individual fish.

The third experiment PNG can learn from is from St Lucia in the West Indies, where a network of 4 reserves was created to cover about 35% of fishing grounds to restore a fishery which was severely over-exploited.

Research results indicated that the reserves increased the adjacent local fishery catches by 46% for large fish traps and 90% for small fish traps in 5 years.

Much discussion followed Mr Anas' presentation.

The next Science Café will be held on March 6 when Professor Warren speaks on the topic Evolution or Creation in Engineering. 

Kokopo Science Café is open to everyone who is interested.

Questions and discussion after the presentation.