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Note from the editor

The two articles in this issue make important contributions to subjects about which almost nothing has hitherto appeared in the literature.

In their article, “Local knowledge on white-dotted grouper (Epinephelus polystigma) aggregations in Melanesia”, Richard Hamilton and Tapas Potuku have essentially initiated the literature base for this rare and little known species, one among the 48 listed as “data deficient” in the recent IUCN Red List assessment of all groupers. Most of the information on E. polystigma presented here was assembled by the authors in 2003 and 2004, during their local knowledge surveys on reef fish aggregations in New Ireland and Manus provinces of Papua New Guinea.

The subject of taboos and fisheries management is of major interest in the Pacific Islands, and over the years has been the topic of several contributions to this Information Bulletin. So it provides an interesting comparison to examine their role in other parts of the tropical world. With this in mind we include here “The role of taboos in conserving coastal resources in Madagascar,” by Joshua E. Cinner, based on his survey of 13 communities within and adjacent to all five of Madagascar’s national marine parks. Unlike some Pacific Islands, where customary management is often implemented adaptively to manipulate resources, in Madagascar taboos are highly inflexible, and some communities have resisted inclusion of them in contemporary conservation measures. Until this contribution, little has been available on the subject of Malagasy marine resource taboos.
 

Kenneth Ruddle

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