Introduction

Pacific island countries cover a very wide geographical area, spanning more than 10,000 kilometres from west to east. This region is the most diverse in the world for shallow water marine life, a characteristic due in large part to the presence of its extensive coral reefs. There are well over five thousand fish species known to date in this area, of which several hundred have not yet been described. This diversity is reflected in the number of coastal organisms of human interest in this area, as well as by the variety of the uses of lagoon and reef fishes or invertebrates (Dalzell et al. 1996). In most Pacific island countries, the catch coming from coastal resources is used mainly for subsistence. This contrasts with offshore fisheries, in particular those for tuna, which are essentially market driven (Gillett and Lightfoot 2001). Because of the low monetary exchange that these coastal resources generate, little attention has so far been given to their management.

Most Pacific island states are facing dramatic increases in their populations. This is resulting in many anthropogenic effects on coastal ecosystems and deep modifications of the socio-economic conditions of human populations, such as a crowding of the metropolitan islands, a decrease in the population of the islands most distant from the major cities, and profound changes in social structure. At the same time, the influence of the market economy is increasing, due in particular to demand for fish products from urban areas and the export of fisheries products to the Asian market or to emerging markets (Dalzell et al. 1996; Sadovy and Vincent 2002). The impact of the market economy is also felt by the introduction and use of increasingly efficient, and at times destructive, gears (Dalzell et al. 1996) and by the decrease in some places of subsistence fishing. On the other hand, subsistence fishing, as previously mentioned, remains a major source of food for large groups within these populations (Gillett and Lightfoot 2001). Subsistence uses are usually in conflict with monetary uses of coastal resources. As coastal resources are a major source of protein for Pacific island populations, these new monetary uses of resources not only result in increased ecological stress, but threaten food security and change feeding habits. In the coming years, drastic changes in resource levels and their uses are probable and in great part dependent on the population level.