THERE are serious indications that reef fish species in the country are dying out.

Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) HapiFis Programme coordinator, Paul Jay Tua told Island Sun that there are possible signs of this occurrence.

Since 2015 to 2016, MFMR under the HapiFis Programme has been collecting data from Honiara and Gizo fish markets.

From the data collected, a total of 379 different types of fish were recorded in Honiara.

However, the Coral Triangle Initiative in the past recorded that there are more than 1,000 fish species present in the country.

The Nature Conservancy has also conducted a survey and recorded 931 species of fish in the Solomon Islands.

In the meantime, Mr Tua said indications of fish depleting can also be measured in time and effort, which means that fishermen have to go far out at sea before they could catch fish.

He however, said the 379 different types of fish found out during the data collection are mainly on the species frequently sold at the fish markets.

“This are common fish species sold at the market. It could be some species are decreasing, that is why during past years, surveys highlighted up to more than thousand species found in the country,” he said.

But Mr Tua said it is still not too late to manage our fish resources.

“We must not wait, this is the time we should act on sustainable harvesting of our fish resources, we still have much fish diversity,” he said.

A team from the MFMR yesterday conducted an awareness for fishermen at the Honiara Central Market where fish vendors and fishermen were informed of the results of the data collected during the four-year data collection.

Fishermen and vendors are also informed of sustainable fishing and ways to conserve fish resources.