Economic Resiliency and Food Security in the Marshall Islands Through Polydactylus sexfilis Aquaculture

Climate change in the Pacific puts pressure on one of the most basic human needs: food. In the Marshall Islands, pressures on the coastal ecosystem have increased due to a high volume of fishing. In the context of climate change, the economic livelihood and day-to-day food procurement of residents of Pacific islands are threatened due to stress on the coral reef ecosystem and specifically the fish populations that provide these livelihoods. The RMI aquaculture fisheries project is an experiment in one option to address the vulnerability of the fishing sector to climate change. The impacts of the RMI aquaculture fisheries project are three-fold. First, when enacted on a large scale, aquaculture will provide a sustainable, exportable fishing business to offer an alternative to purse seine tuna fishing, increasing the economic resiliency of the Marshall Islands. Second, when enacted on a small scale, will offer a secure source of animal protein that is locally produced. Thirdly, there will be less dependence on expensive imported agricultural inputs by instead using locally sourced by-catch for fish feed. This paper outlines the basic principles, necessary infrastructure, and results from October 2015 to January 2017 of hatchery and nursery operations, feed production, and open-ocean cage grow-out utilized by the Aquaculture Technologies of the Marshall Islands (ATMI). The ATMI program can be used as a pilot program to inform others in the Pacific interested in cage aquaculture as a climate change adaptation strategy for coastal communities.