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Fish aggregating devices, more commonly called FADs, are anchored or drifting objects that are put in the ocean to attract fish. Tuna and other fish gather around FADs, which makes it easier to find and catch them. Fish also aggregate under drifting logs and even whales, and rules on fishing around FADs often apply to all objects drifting on or near the sea surface, which attract fish.

This report discusses the status of Pacific Island reef fisheries for finfish and invertebrates, near- shore fisheries for pelagic fish (e.g. tunas), fisheries for demersal fish (e.g. deepwater snappers), and aquaculture. Effective fisheries management is needed to maximise the yields of demersal fish and invertebrates, and reduce the size of the 'food gap' between available seafood and that required to meet the needs of growing human populations in the Pacific Islands region. However, much of the additional seafood required will need to come from nearshore pelagic fish (tunas in particular) and aquaculture.

The Pacific first became a part of the luxury aquarium trade in the 1970s. Thirty years later, the total value of aquarium exports from the region is between US$40 and US$60 million—accounting for about 10-15% of the global trade—and the aquarium trade is becoming an important source of income and employment for local communities in the Pacific. For example, in Fiji alone, it provides employment for 600 people and fisheries revenue second only to tuna. Today, the activity has spread to over 13 Pacific islands countries and territories, finding its source in unique coral reef habitats. It has even come to some of the most remote places (such as Kiritimati Island in Kiribati), where there are a number of rare or endemic fish species not found in South East Asia, the major competitor. There are concerns that extractive wild-capture practices are causing damage to marine environments. But evidence suggests that coral reef resources are resilient and that the trade could be managed sustainably to provide Pacific islands communities with a continuing livelihood. Tony Nahacky from Aquarium Fish (Fiji) Ltd has been harvesting corals and fish from the same area around Pacific Harbour for 24 years.

In 1993 a study of coastal villages in Vanuatu revealed that within the previous three years there had been a rapid increase in marine resource management (MRM) activities. The initial impetus for these events was the Vanuatu Fisheries Department's promotion of a voluntary, village-based trochus management programme. Initially the programme involved only a few fishing villages out of a total of several hundred. The Department surveyed their community trochus stocks, advised the people that regular several-year closures of their trochus fishery, followed by brief openings, would generate far more profit than the usual practice of harvesting continually. They left it to the villagers to decide whether or not to act on this advice.

This Strategic Plan for the Regional Maritime Programme (RMP) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) follows on from RMP's Three year strategic plan 2003 to 2005. It builds on achievements of the previous plan period and sets out the direction of the Programme over the next five years (2006 to 2010).

Community-based marine resource management (CBMRM) is more widespread in Oceania than in other tropical region. In this article, I examine the relationship between community leadership and CBMRM, based on a Fijian example. During 2004, sociological community surveys were conducted in five commu-nities on two remote islands, to investigate the status of local traditional authority, with strong leadership being deemed as a critical foundation for successful local marine resource management. Findings show that local traditional customs, for example around the installment of chiefs, are eroding and one result is that village leadership generally weakens. This local foundation therefore requires more careful attention — without it, implemented management measures may be impractical and unsustainable.