President and Tui Macuata Ratu Wiliame Katonivere pleaded with communities in his province to safeguard vulnerable species of sharks and rays in Dreketi waters.

He urged the people of Fiji to honour, uphold, and respect Tui Dreketi’s great cause during the launch of the shark and ray sanctuary next to the Dreketi Market.

People are being advised by Ratu Wiliame to observe the months of November through April as these endangered species’ breeding season.

“To protect these endangered species from depletion, the Qoliqoli Cokovata management committee, through its fisheries management plan, with the support of the Vanua Dreketi and Nabekavu, agreed and gave unanimous consensus to protect the entrance and part of the Dreketi River from November to April each year for this endangered species to spawn,” Ratu Wiliame said.

The committee has been working in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pacific on this, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is funding this project.

“We all will continue to pursue our conservation movement to further enhance the sustainability management of our resources,” he said.

“We are all aware of the survey conducted by Andrew Paris of the University of the South Pacific for juvenile elasmobranch species from January 8 to February 18, 2020.”

He said the survey that lasted for 20 days, comprised of 75 hours of gill net soak time, yielded a total of 85 elasmobranch captures and a total elasmobranch catch per unit effort of 1.13 captures per hour.

A scalloped hammerhead shark.

Background of the survey

In this survey, four species of sharks were captured: 47 scalloped hammerhead sharks, 14 blacktip sharks, eight great hammerhead sharks, and eight bull sharks.

In addition, captured were three species of rays: the ocellated eagle ray, the pink whip ray, and bottlenose wedge fish.

Of the total captures, three species— the great hammerhead shark, the scalloped hammerhead shark, and the bottlenose wedge fish—are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species as critically endangered.

Bull sharks and blacktip sharks are listed as near-threatening.

In addition, ocellated eagle ray and pink whipray are listed as vulnerable.

A great hammerhead shark.

About Dreketi River

The Dreketi River catchment is one of the largest in Fiji.

It runs 65 kilometres, mostly from east to west, and drains a large section of central Vanua Levu.

It is considered to be the deepest river in Fiji and one of the few remaining rivers in Fiji that has not yet been dredged.

A bottlenose wedge fish.

Joyful Dreketi people

The Vunivalu of Dreketi, Ratu Maika Rokobatidua, said he was happy to see Ratu Wiliame, who has been an active advocate of protecting marine life, launch the campaign.

Penaia Salakobou, an elder of the Tava Clan in Dreketi, was one of the founders of the initiative, which started in 2005.

“Now, at the age of 83, I can feel at peace knowing that the campaign has been publicly known,” said Mr Salakobou as he sat on a chair with a walking stick.

“There used to be overharvesting and overfishing, and these species were almost depleting,” he said.

He hopes that people will honour the campaign even though there is no fine or criminal charge laid.

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