BY SAMIE WAIKORI
AUKI
COMMUNITIES from Hauhui, Malo’u and Tawanikeni on west Are Are and Small Malaita constituencies recently recieved Fishing Aggregate Devises (FAD) in their waters.
Malaita provincial senior fisheries officer in Auki, Matthew Isihanua who administered the deployment of the FADs told this paper yesterday.
He said the FADs were deployed in the first week of this month and people are now catching fish and benefiting from them.
Isihanua said the FAD program was part of MPG’s support towards improving livelihood of people, especially those in coastal communities in the province.
He said the ultimate aim of the programme is to try and shift people’s behavior from overharvesting marine habitats like reefs and mangroves to FADs out in the ocean.
Isihanua said for these recent deployed FADs, they were funded by communities and the MPA through their Ward Development Committee (WDC).
He said the FAD at Hauhui was funded by members of the community and donor partners.
The two FADs on Small Malaita were funded by MPA, Dickson Pola through his WDC for his people of ward 21, which also covered wards 20 and 19.
He said for the past three years, more than 100 FADs were deployed around the province.
Isihanua said the funding of these FADs came under partnership with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resource, MPG, WorldFish and Provincial Assembly Members through their WDCs.
