Stoups from Poum migrate to the East Coast

Article published in Caledonian News

The Marine Protected Areas Management Committees of Pouébo and Hienghene are carrying out an operation to re-populate their reefs by introducing giant clams caught in Golone (Poum).

The Steamer (Hippopus hippopus) has the distinction of being only placed on the bottom, unlike other species that are firmly anchored in coral reefs. These giant clams are very easily victims of overfishing for the consumption of the inhabitants of the seaside.
Based on this diagnosis, the Yambé-Diahoué Marine Protected Area (MPA) management committee of Pouébo, composed of tribal inhabitants, undertook last year to start a repopulation action to ensure the sustainability of the species that was tending to disappear in the area concerned. " A beautiful action Sébastien Faninoz, marine coordinator at WWF, assists the management committee in his project.
In concrete terms, the people involved first looked for information relating to the farming of giant clams. The second phase consisted in identifying the habitats of these clams, thus leading to the marking of the reception stations of future arrivals. Then, the first phase of repopulation took place with 100 clam fished and ringed for identification on Jean-Pierre Séraphin's farm. An operation taking place in four stages: the giant clam fishery, their banding followed by conditioning for transport and, finally, the depot on MPA stations at the beginning of September 2009, at the rate of 4 to 5 clams per square meter.

“We have achieved our restocking objective…
… And we created links between the committees. ”

The giant clams chosen are broodstock that should then allow the reproduction of the species in the repopulated area and around it. A month later, it was found that only one stoup was dead. And nine months later (last May 3), the mortality was about 10%, but due to natural predation with the passage of turtles, who manage to break the clams to eat them.
The adaptation of the holy clams to their new environment was therefore a success. The action was thus reproduced last week with 100 additional clams and spread oil a little further south at the management committee of the Hienga MPA in Hienghene. The two committees went to Poum to carry out the same operation together. It is this time 200 giant clams which were chosen in Golone and placed in the two MPAs of the East coast: 100 in Pouebo and as much for Hienghène. " It worked really wellexclaims Sébastien Faninoz. What is very interesting is that it was the Pouébo committee that formed the Hienghene band for the banding of the clams. And the WWF coordinator particularly greets " Robert Nunéwaïe, clan chief of the Pouébo committee, who led the various workshops and contributed to the training of the people of Hienghène. In a good mood, we managed to reach our goal of restocking and created a link between the management committees. Now, we will continue to monitor spawners and we will try to reduce the mortality rate linked to natural predation. »

Xavier Heyraud