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WORKING PAPERS - BOBP/WP/72 Giant Clams in the Maldives -
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Executing Agency: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Bay of Bengal Programme Madras, India, 1991 |
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© FAO 2004
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Tuna fishing is the major fisheries activity in the Maldives. However, fishing for nontraditional organisms is becoming popular, as it provides fishermen with new areas of employment or alternatives when tuna fishing is poor. One non-traditional fishery in the Maldives is that for giant clam. This fishery is only a year old, but so considerably has the resourcebeen exploited that different non-fishery professionals — tourist resort owners, divers and, of course, environmentalists — have already shown great concern about its long term effects. It was this concern that led to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture undertaking an assessment of the status of giant clams in the Maldives through their Reef Fish Research and Resources Survey Project (RAS/88/007). The assessment was executed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations through the Bay of Bengal Programme, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme. This paper is based on the report submitted by the consultant to the Government of Maldives in April 1991 and describes the findings of the assessment and discusses the possibility of developing a viable mariculture project to ensure a continued existence of the giant clam in the Maldives. The author wishes to thank all the team at the Marine Research Section of the Ministry of Fisheries, particularly Maizan Hassan Maniku and Charles Allism, for their detailed backgound information, Hassan Shakeel of MRS, for putting up with many questions and providing logistic assistance, Bill Allison for field assistance in counting of clams and John Lucas for helpful comments on the final report. |
1 . INTRODUCTION
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 The Maldives
2.2 Giant clam biology
2.3 Exploitation of giant clams in the Maldives
2.4 Aims of the survey
2.5 Assessment of the giant clam fishery
3. METHODS
3.1 Stock assessment
3.2 Length frequency measurements
3.3 Age determination
4. RESULTS
4.1 Stock composition
4.2 Stock assessment by tows4.2.1 Fished reefs
4.2.2 Unfished reefs
4.2.3 Unknown status4.3 Relative stock assessment by swimming
4.4 Comparison with giant clam stocks in the Pacific
4.5 Length frequency data
4.6 Age determination and shell morphometrics
4.7 The giant clam fishery
4.8 Licensing
4.9 Commercial operations4.9.1 Fishery statistics from the exporters
4.9.2 Fishery statistics from the shell middens4.10 Environmental considerations
4.11 Tourism and the clam fishery
5. CULTURE POTENTIAL
5.1 General considerations
5.2 CITES convention
6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 The fishery
6.2 Giant clam culture
TABLES
1. Location and number of tows taken for stock assessment
2. Summary of stock assessment tow data by fished status
3. Summary of data collected whilst swimming
4. Mean standard shell length for clams on different reefs
5. Mean standard shell length for populations of clams combined by atoll
6. Export statistics for frozen clam meat
FIGURES
1. Map of the Maldives showing reefs and route taken
2. Position of saw cut through the valve and the position in the section for counting the growth rings
3. Length frequency histograms of T. maxima from Kaafu and Lhaviyani Atolls
4. Length frequency histograms of T. maxima from Raa and Shaviyani Atolls
5. Length frequency histograms of T. squamosa from Kaafu and Lhaviyani Atolls
6. Length frequency histograms of T. squa,nosa from Raa and Shaviyani Atolls
7. Size versus age for T. squamosa shells taken from the middens on R. Ugoofaaru. (Age determined by growth ring analysis.)
8. Length frequency histogram of T. squamosa shells from the middens on R. Ugoofaaru showing divisions of purchase price.
REFERENCES
APPENDICES