Issues

Many issues face the local people of Koh Yao Yai.

Environmental issues:

In his opening address at the 2001 Reykjavik Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem, Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), summarized as follows the state of world fisheries:

"The great oceans are exhaustible. Despite the fact that the majority of all resources are now fully exploited, access to these resources remains open in far too many fisheries around the world. Over-investment in the fishing industry exacerbates the problem .... Today there are too many vessels chasing too few fish .... The task at hand is to examine how to manage fisheries with a view to ensuring sustainable utilization of the food available in the oceans for the benefit of present and future generations without harming the ecosystem's capacity to support human life."

Local income issues:

Currently local fish growers are raising whatever fish they can find. They raise snappers and common species or groupers that have a low market value.

Our breeding program aims to help these issues by:

Providing a different species of groupers and lobsters that have a lot higher market value. This would be a huge added value that will improve the livelihood of the local people.

Educating the locals fish growers about the environment and the fish, and how to be more efficient in their work.

Educating the next generations about the increasingly important role fish farming will play in the future of fish stocks.