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Coral reef fisheries are a vital source of protein for coastal communities throughout the tropics. Coral reefs contain over 4,000 species of fish as well as other edible invertebrates and contribute about one-quarter of the total marine catch in developing countries. Exploitive
fishing, which includes overfishing and destructive fishing, occurs on most of the world’s reefs. It yields short-term economic benefits for fishers, but endangers the long-term sustainability of fishing and other reef-dependent industries
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The Government of the Republic of Palau has developed this National Spill Contingency Plan
(NATPLAN) as part of its commitment to protecting our valuable coastal and marine
resources from an eminent or substantial threat to the marine environment or public.
NATPLAN has been developed to reflect the essential steps necessary to initiate, conduct and
terminate an emergency spill response on, or into the navigable waters of the Republic of
Palau, on the adjoining shorelines, the waters of the contiguous zone or into waters of the
exclusive economic zone.

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 development and sustainable management of Nukunono's resources requires active involvement from all sectors of the community. Meetings were held with all stakeholder groups to document their concerns and perceptions of atoll resources and
current and historic resource use. These were further supplemented by semi-structured interviews conducted at random with individuals from all community groups to obtain more details perceptions on the status and use of resources and also
on management systems and their success or otherwise.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) is committed to demonstrating environmental stewardship while executing its national defense mission. The United States (U.S.) Navy (Navy) is responsible for

During the period February 13 to 20, 1973, a visit was made to Canton Island for the purpose of conducting a preliminary survey of marine turtle nesting populations. Although previous investigators have described the sea birds (Buddle, 1938; Murphy G., 1954), insects (Van Zwaluwenburg, 1943, 1955), and vegetation (Hatheway, 1955), very little is known about the marine environment of Canton or the other seven atolls (Enderbury, Birnie, Phoenix, Sydney, Hull, Gardner and McKean) which comprise the Phoenix group.

In 2000, the Fiji Islands was at the northern edge of a large pool of unusually warm water, and suffered extensive hard coral death due to coral bleaching. A paper composed of a collection of studies from across the Fiji islands, linking this coral
death to elevated sea temperatures at the time, was published (Cummings et al 2000). The difficulty of gathering data from very different sources, and which had been recorded using many different methods, established the need for standardised

Vanuatu is an archipelago of 80 volcanic islands in the Western Pacific ocean with a population of 192,000, the majority of which are Melanesian. Approximately 79% of the population live in the rural areas, and depending on subsistence lifestyle of gardening, fishing and animal keeping. The islands are geologically young with narrow fringing reefs that support a limited marine and fisheries resources. These marine resources are important source of protein and a source of income from local sale of products such as fish, crabs, shellfish and lobsters. Trochus shell (T.

Almost half a billion people live within 100 km (60 miles) of coral reefs where they benefit from fisheries, wave and storm surge protection, and tourist income. With the worldwide coastal
population expected to double by 2050, coral reefs will be facing increased pressure from unmanaged development along coasts. Unplanned coastal developed is not only a serious threat

In The Early 1990s, Residents Of UCUNIVANUA VILLAGE, On The Eastern Coast Of Fiji’s largest island, realized that the marine resources they depended on were becoming scarce. Village elders remembered when a