Fisherman worries about future

By Aruna Lolani 25 May 2017, 12:00AM

The consequences of climate change reaches far more than the dry spells and continuous flooding.  

For fisherman, Lata Asuelu from the village of Luatuanu’u, the dwindling number of fish in the lagoon is another sign.

The 59-year-old is irritated because he has noticed a marked difference in his catches.

 “The sea is not the same anymore. For us who use fishing nets, now and then we come and go with almost nothing.

“There’s barely any fish on this side and I think it’s because of a lot of factors.”

Overfishing is one of them.

“The problem with this kind of fishing at night time is that they always dig up corals and everything that are homes to all kind of species under the sea.

“So they benefit from it because they get more fish than they should have but what would that situation leave for us with fishing nets? Nothing. 

“Besides the plantation, this is another source of food and income for me and my family sometimes.

“You know if we get more, than there’s a chance to sell some off to people to make a little bit of money and it’s good money, if not then we use it to make something to eat for the whole family. 

“But lately, there’s never a possibility to catch more or just enough anymore, it’s always rarely enough. 

“That’s the problem I don’t like and I’ve always wanted to express a concern on this issue.

“We all know, there are still Samoans or most of Samoan families who depend on the lands and the sea for food and everything else that we need.

Mr. Asuelu went on “I thought it was a good day to throw my fishing line somewhere in the sea but it’s not. There’s no fish, they have no place here.

“Maybe just an advice to other fishermen, try to fish without destroying the homes of ocean species because without homes or any corals for these species to stay in, the further they will go away from here and we don’t want that to happen.”

By Aruna Lolani 25 May 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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