The trochus harvest ended at noon on Monday, Aug. 8, following the second time that the state government re-extended the open season for fishermen to be able to collect the number of trochus still needed to reach the catch quota of 150 tons assigned for the main island.
At the closing of the trochus harvest, the total number of Trochus being collected by fishermen since the beginning of the open season on July 11, 2011 reached a total weight of 98.012585 tons, which was still far from the 150 tons as assigned.
This will be the first time that fishermen in Yap have faced difficulty to find enough or more trochus in order to reach the quota that has been assigned for the main island.
During past trochus harvest open seasons, the government would usually close down the harvest because the local fishermen always collected more trochus to reach the assigned quota ahead of the closing dates, but those were before the Marine Protected Areas have been established.
Now with the MPA’s in place and with their own restrictions, fishermen in Yap were not able to catch enough trochus on the only reefs that they were allowed to fish.
In another development, the government has extended two weeks for the neighboring islands to continue their harvest from Aug. 11 to 25.
The extension is meant to allow time for fishermen in all the islands included in the trochus harvest open season to continue their harvest so they could reach their assigned quotas. So far, none of those islands have reached their assigned quotas.
