Feature article

PI-GOOS Case Study: Ocean Monitoring and Economic Benefits to the Cook Islands’ Black Pearl Industry

Aarti V Naidu, SOPAC

The Pacific Island Global Ocean Observing System (PI-GOOS) is dedicated to acquiring oceanographic and related climate data and developing this into information and products useful for sustainable coastal and marine management in the Pacific. The provision of scientific information and advice to the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) will ultimately assist their self-empowerment and decision-making pertaining to their ocean environment, with direct positive implications for the region’s economic and social development.

The Cook Islands' black pearl industry is benefiting from such PI-GOOS initiatives. The Black Pearl farms in Manihiki Lagoon provide a prominent export commodity for the Cook Islands (being the second biggest economic sector after tourism). The pearl industry earned approximately $18.4 million of export revenue in 2000. However, this value declined dramatically to $2.8 million in 2003 (Cook Islands Statistical Bulletin 2003).

The decline in export revenue was caused by two main factors including a general fall in international pearl prices. This was primarily because of a rapid increase in the supply of French Polynesian black pearls on the world market. The second factor affecting the Cook Islands' black pearl export was a disease outbreak in Manihiki causing high levels of sick oysters, and often death. Overstocking, poor farming practices, and adverse environmental conditions caused the disease (McKenzie 2004). Collaborative efforts between the Cook Islands' Ministry of Marine Resources, the South Pacific Community (SPC), the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), and NZAID have led to the instigation of various projects to stabilise and assist strengthening the Cook Islands' black pearl industry.

These included the initiation of oceanographic monitoring and bathymetric mapping in order to understand the lagoon conditions and thereby improve the ability to farm and sustainably manage the industry at Manihiki (Smith 2003).

The data and information obtained from oceanographic monitoring and bathymetric mapping have been and are still being used for:

• an early warning system of environmental conditions that may cause oyster disease outbreak, allowing farmers to adjust farming practices;
• estimations of carrying capacity of the lagoon;
• information on the lagoon response to intense commercial mariculture;
• baseline data to assess pearl farming potential of other lagoons in the Cook Islands, and across the South Pacific;
• contribution to international research activities, including other black pearl industries; and
• drafting the Manihiki Pearl Management Plan.

Continued oceanographic monitoring, and the implementation of the Draft Manihiki Pearl Management Plan, have the potential to reap substantial economic rewards for the Cook Islands through generation of pearl revenue to the value of NZ$40 million, with additional indirect secondary benefits (based on estimates between 2004 and 2019) (McKenzie 2004). Without implementation of the Pearl Farming Management Plan, there would be incentives for individual farmers, using a communally owned and unregulated lagoon, to increase oyster stocks beyond the biological and economic optimum, leading to repeated disease outbreaks, and reduced profits for all farmers: most notably the net present value of the export pearl revenue (2004-2014) is estimated to become negative, falling to NZ$-2.8 million (McKenzie 2004).

The Manihiki Case Study exemplifies the role that PI-GOOS plays in retrieving, storing, and using longer-term sustained marine data for the improved management of coastal and marine areas, and major marine-related industries in the Pacific region, such as fisheries, mariculture, and tourism. Ultimately, this helps to maintain the health of ocean, coastal and atoll ecosystems for the longer-term benefit of the local Pacific Island community.

Further information is available on the new PI-GOOS website – the first ocean information portal developed for the region in mid 2005, accessible via the SOPAC Home Page (www.sopac.org). For other queries, or to discuss ocean/climate monitoring issues and potential projects in the South Pacific, contact the PI-GOOS Co-ordinator, Dr Sarah Grimes based at the PI-GOOS Secretariat in SOPAC, Fiji ([email protected]) or PI-GCOS Co-ordinator, Mr Dean Solofa, based at the PI-GCOS Secretariat in the South Pacific Regional Environmental Program (SPREP), Samoa ([email protected]).

References

McKenzie, E. December 2004. A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Projects Implemented to Assist the Black Pearl Industry in Manihiki Lagoon, Cook Islands, SOPAC Technical Report 371, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission.

Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (MFEM) 2003. Cook Islands Statistical Bulletin. Statistics Office, Government of Cook Islands.

Smith, R. December 2003. Manihiki and Penrhyn Atoll oceanographic monitoring buoys: Monthly Data Report No. 1. SOPAC Data Report 11. South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission.