Livestock Shipping Resumes from Papua New Guinea

Taking up where PNG Seasmart left off, EcoAquariums PNG is now shipping marine fishes using a new reef-to-reefkeeper labeling program.

By Ret Talbot

CORAL Magazine was able to track down EcoAquariums Papua New Guinea (PNG), Ltd. in this busy holiday season to follow-up on our earlier article about the new company's plans to begin shipping fishes from PNG before the end of 2011.

As reported in CORAL earlier this year, after the collapse of PNG SEASMART in 2010, the government of PNG issued a permit to the fledgling EcoAquariums to resume marine aquarium exports in 2011. With the end of the year so close, we thought it would be worth following up on the most recent news from PNG. 

We caught up with EcoAquariums Director Dan Navin in Australia, where he is spending Christmas, and we're pleased to report that EcoAquariums PNG has in fact begun providing sustainably-minded aquarists with PNG fishes again.

CORAL: Thanks for taking the time to sit down and chat with us, especially at this very busy time of the year. When we interviewed you this past summer, you said you hoped to begin shipping before the end of 2011. So?

NAVIN: When I met with you in early July this year, I was hopeful that we would be able to make our first export by the end of October. That estimation was however, a bit ambitious. Finalizing our land use agreement, building our facility, sourcing equipment from the USA and Australia, retraining our fishers on fish ID and collection techniques, and myriad other issues all took a bit longer than I hoped.

Dan Navin with children of the EcoAquariums fishers.

CORAL: But you have shipped since then, right?

NAVIN: Yes! We were successful at making two exports this year. The first went to Hong Kong and our second to Singapore. The Asian market for aquarium fish is quite large, and rapidly growing, and they are quite keen to import our PNG fish!

CORAL: The logistics of shipping to Asia are easier than the logistics of shipping to North America, right?

NAVIN: That's correct. It is very easy for us to ship to Asia, as we have direct flights from POM [the international airport at Port Moresby, the capital of PNG] to various Asian cities.

CORAL: From speaking with you before, we know sustainability is central to your business model, and you expressed a desire to lessen all mortality–especially shipping mortality–as much as possible. Were you pleased with the first two shipments in terms of fish health and well-being?

NAVIN: The DOA [dead on arrival] levels on our initial shipments has been low, although we will not be satisfied until we achieve zero percent mortality, especially on these relatively short transits to Asia.

CORAL: How long were the fishes in the bags during these first shipments?

NAVIN: The flights were only about six to eight hours long, but because these were our very first exports, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time for packing, getting the export documentation sorted, and loading the fish onto the plane.

So by the time the fish were unpacked in Asia, they had spent upwards of 18 hours in the bags. As we refine our packing and export process, we will get this bag time down significantly.

CORAL: How long did you hold the fish on average before shipping?

NAVIN: On average, we held the fishes about one week. For some hardy fish, like clownfish, we hold them for two weeks or more if we can and try to get them eating pellet food before we ship them. For other fish, like a lot of the wrasses and butterflies, holding them for much more than a week generally stresses them out.

These fish should ideally go directly from the reef, into an established reef tank, so holding them in bare glass aquariums for any length of time is something that we want to avoid.

CORAL: Many international exporters "purge" their fishes before export by not feeding, but some have argued recently that purging is not necessary for all fishes. Does EcoAquariums withhold food from fishes before export?

NAVIN: We don't expose our fish to long-term purging before we ship them as some exporters do. For small fish with fast metabolisms, we deprive them of food for just 12 to 24 hours prior to shipping. For the largest herbivorous fish, like big rabbitfish or tangs, we'll deprive them of food for maybe 48 hours prior to shipping.

All of these fish have pretty fast metabolic rates, and they are constantly grazing in the wild, so depriving them of food for any amount of time is something that will stress them out big time. There is no way that we want to ship fish that are stressed. Our reports from our buyers have been very positive regarding the health of the fish.

CORAL: Diversity of species was always an issue with wholesalers during SEASMART's operation. Roughly how many species were exported in these first two shipments?

NAVIN: We have exported about 60 species of fish so far.

CORAL: While I'm sure we would have heard about another Lightning Maroon Clownfish if you'd found and shipped one, are there any specific fish that really stood out in these first two shipments?

NAVIN: We did have some Percula and Maroon Clowns exhibiting unusual patterning, but no Lightning Maroon Clownfish. . . yet.

CORAL: What other species did you ship?

NAVIN: We shipped some beautiful Swallowtail and Watanabei Angels, Golden Butterflies, Lyretail Hawkfish, Lyretail Anthias, New Guinea Wrasse, Papuan Toby Puffer, Ringtail Cardinals and Yellow Cardinals. Anyone can view a complete list of the species that we have exported by viewing our tracking number database PDF on our website.

CORAL: A minute ago you said "yet. . ." in regards to a Lightning Maroon.

NAVIN: I'm fairly confident we'll see more, as we see quite a few interesting color morphs. We did ship a pair of very unique Maroon Clown males, see above, that came from the same anemone, along with a large female, to Singapore where a breeder expressed interest. Perhaps these fish could create the next Lightning.

CORAL: That will no doubt disappoint Matt Pedersen, who, as you know, has the maroon clownfish collected by SEASMART. We know he has been keen to get his hands on PNG maroons.

NAVIN: I know. Sorry, Matt. North American exports will begin early in 2012.

CORAL: That was going to be our next question: when can North American aquarists hope to see PNG fishes?

NAVIN: The next shipments will be going out in 2012. We will be making our maiden exports to North America and the UK by late January or early February.

CORAL: Do you already have a shipment lined up for North America, or are you still negotiating with potential buyers? The reason we ask is we hear a lot of aquarists interested in purchasing PNG animals, but somebody obviously needs to import the fishes first. As you know better than most, lining up North American buyers was an issue for SEASMART when they were the sole shipper of PNG fishes.

PNG Longnose Hawkfish.

NAVIN: Buyers are lined up in the USA, as well as in the UK.

Because we are a fairly small operation at this point, I am working with just a couple importers that I have had extensive meetings and discussions with to ensure that they are in line with the EA ethos. At this point, we're working exclusively with AquaTech Imports, Inc. in the USA and The Reef UK, Ltd. in England.

These guys are committed to maintaining the high quality of the fish that we are sending them, and they are enthusiastic about maintaining the integrity of the fish labeling system. They also have each built dedicated quarantine and holding sections exclusively for our PNG fish. As we expand in size next year, EA may begin looking for more "sustainability minded, high quality committed, not so price driven" importers throughout North America and Europe.

CORAL: What about coral? Will you be exporting coral?

NAVIN: Corals should be available in early 2012, and NFA [the PNG National Fisheries Authority] is this week compiling data from their recent coral surveys to establish our coral TACs [Total Allowable Catch/Collection limits] and also to make their non-detrimental finding case for the acquisition of CITES [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora] permits. I expect that by March we will have the green light to begin coral exports.

CORAL: While we are very excited to hear PNG fishes and coral will be available to North American aquarists again soon, we are even more excited to learn more about EcoAquariums' ecolabeling program. If we understand it correctly, each animal exported comes with a label and unique tracking number, correct?

NAVIN: Yes. That's right. Each fish that we purchase from one of our village-based fish collectors is assigned a plastic label with a unique tracking number. We keep that label with the fish the whole time we have it, and when the fish is exported, we attach the label onto the bag. When the importer receives the fish, they then keep the label with the fish, so that the end buyer can clearly see that fish originated from EcoAquariums PNG.

CORAL: So the label serves to identify the fish was collected sustainably and in such a manner that local fishers benefitted from their work?

NAVIN: That's correct. Then when aquarists take the labels home with their PNG fish, they can go to our website, look up the tag numbers, and find out all about the who, what, when, where, and how of collection. We list the latitude and longitude coordinates of the collection site, so by copying and pasting them into Google Earth, you can get a nice image of the reef where the fish came from. You can also view an image of the collector who caught the fish by viewing "the collectors" page of our site.

CORAL: Of course this is dependent on the importer and the retailers maintaining the integrity of the label and the brand.

NAVIN: That's true, and that's why we are picking our partners very carefully in this first year.

CORAL: On the collection side, labeling each animal certainly adds to your workload, but you think it's worth it?

NAVIN: Definitely. The whole point of this tagging system is to provide as much information to the end retail customer as possible and to allow them to make a choice about the type of fish they purchase and the type of aquarium industry they want to support. We promote our fish as the most sustainably collected and equitably traded fish in the world, so we want to make sure that our fish are easily identifiable in the LFS. That way the customer actually has the ability to choose between our fish and fish that come from somewhere else.
Clownfishes, including a misbarred Maroon, with tags recording collection information.

CORAL: I suspect aquarists will see the label as an aid to buying sustainably and simply value added to their purchase.

NAVIN: That's our intent. And if we can add a bit more info–like who collected the fish and where exactly it came from–well that's just plain cool! Our fish tell a story.

When you purchase a fish from EcoAquariums, you can show your friends an image of the reef where it came from, a picture of the PNG fisherman who caught it and was paid for it and whose life is benefiting from your purchase. You can also see when exactly it was caught, how it was caught, and in some cases, from how deep.

We think that's a heck of a lot cooler than telling your friends your fish came from "somewhere in the Indo-Pacific." (Fisherman Nou Karawa who caught two misbarred Maroon Clowns, above.)

Ret Talbot is a CORAL senior editor currently writing a series of articles on sustainability issues in the marine aquarium livestock trade.

Image Credits: Courtesy EcoAquariums PNG, Ltd. and Dan Navin.