Developing an International Standard for the Trade in Live Reef Food Fish - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 163

Table 8.1 The main species of the live reef food fish trade.

FAO (common English) name Scientific name Trade status

Highfin (humpback/mouse) grouper Cromileptes altivelis High value

Humphead (Napoleon/Maori) wrasse Cheilinus undulatus High value

Giant (Queensland) grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus High value

Leopard coral grouper Plectropomus leopardus High value

Squaretail coral grouper Plectropomus areolatus Medium value

Spotted coral grouper Plectropomus maculatus Medium value

Brown marbled (tiger) grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus Medium value

Camouflaged (flowery) grouper Epinephelus polyphekadion Medium value

Orange-spotted (green) grouper Epinephelus coioides Other grouper

Malabar (Malabar) grouper Epinephelus malabaricus Other grouper

Hong Kong (red) grouper Epinephelus akaara Other grouper

and Papua New Guinea, the Solomon and Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Fiji, in
the Pacific Ocean. In the case of these smaller-exporting countries, the volume of
trade has been restricted by social, political, operational and transport difficulties
resulting in only sporadic activity.
The LRFFT comprises a wide variety of fish, but is dominated by grouper
(Serranidae) species. Within the grouper complex, fish can be characterised as low-,
medium- and high-value fish species (Table 8.1). The high- and medium-priced
fish are sourced mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia, while
the lower-value fish are imported from People's Republic of China (PRC) and
Thailand.
The regional trade is not well monitored, making estimates of quantities of LRFF
traded across SE Asia and the Indo-Pacific region difficult to determine. Nonethe-
less, the total regional trade has been estimated to be about 30 000 tonnes per year
(Sadovy et al . 2003). With the exception of Australia, most exporting countries
maintain only limited records of their LRFF exports, which reflect the large num-
bers of fish landing sites, a limited capacity to monitor remote fishing grounds,
and the long distances between fishing grounds, export hubs and markets. It is es-
timated that 60-70% of the LRFF traded internationally are imported into Hong
Kong, transported by sea or air, depending on the location of fishing grounds or
holding facilities and available air links. Other smaller consumer markets for LRFF
in SE Asia include Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan. Singapore is the primary
consumer of LRFF outside Hong Kong, while most of the fish sent to Taiwan were
reported to be grouper fry for grow-out and later export complemented by minor
local consumption (Muldoon 2007).
The most reliable and consistent records of the regional LRFFT can be derived
from import data collected by relevant government departments in Hong Kong -
the Census and Statistics Department (CSD) and the Agriculture, Fisheries and
Conservation Department (AFCD). Nonetheless, the reliability of these estimates
is hindered by under-reporting as there is no requirement for Hong Kong-licensed