Giant Clams in the Maldives- A Stock Assessment and Study of Their Potential for Culture-BOBP/WP/72
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Tuna fishing is the major fisheries activity in the Maldives. However, fishing for nontraditional organisms is becoming popular, as it provides fishermen with new areas of employment or alternatives when tuna fishing is poor. One non-traditional fishery in the Maldives is that for giant clam. This fishery is only a year old, but so considerably has the resourcebeen exploited that different non-fishery professionals — tourist resort owners, divers and, of course, environmentalists — have alread y shown great concern about its long term effects. It was this concern that led to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture undertaking an assessment of the status of giant clams in the Maldives through their Reef Fish Research and Resources Survey Project (RAS/88/007). The assessment was executed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations through the Bay of Bengal Programme, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme. This paper is based on the report su bmitted by the consultant to the Government of Maldives in April 1991 and describes the findings of the assessment and discusses the possibility of developing a viable mariculture project to ensure a continued existence of the giant clam in the Maldives. The author wishes to thank all the team at the Marine Research Section of the Ministry of Fisheries, particularly Maizan Hassan Maniku and Charles Allism, for their detailed backgound information, Hassan Shakeel of MRS, for putting up with man y questions and providing logistic assistance, Bill Allison for field assistance in counting of clams and John Lucas for helpful comments on the final report.