Napoleon Fish Under Threat: Indonesia

A fish is a fish to me and as long as I can fry or grill it then I am happy. I have never heard of a Napoleon fish but no doubt sometime on my travels I have devoured its flesh.

Apparently the Napoleon fish is the emperor of tropical coral reefs and is battling for survival. Often illegally fished it is sold for high prices to Chinese buyers who prize its delicate flesh.

The latest attempt at smuggling this giant of the seas with a curious bump on its head occurred last month. 36 of the fish known also as the humphead wrasse were seized at Manado airport on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.

They had been destined for the steaming restaurants of Hong Kong where one kilogram of the rare fish fetches 80 to 130 dollars.

Yvonne Sadovy from the World Conservation Union warns that one of the challenges facing the species is that it does not reproduce as readily as species such as sardines or anchovies, AFP reported.

The fish which can weigh up to 200 kilograms and exceed two meters does not reach sexual maturity until it is nearly five years old. But fishermen aim to capture young prey which have not yet had a chance to procreate.

"They are potentially threatened if nothing is done" warns Sadovy an expert on the fish from the University of Hong Kong.

Greenpeace noted in 2004 that the fish was in dramatic decline along Indonesia's coral reefs while another conservation group, Telapak, estimated that its number had dwindled to just three to four per square kilometre.

Under pressure from ecologists, the species was registered in 2004, effective in 2005 under appendix 2 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora which allows its controlled marketing.

Strict quotas now govern the capture of the humphead wrasse found in the Indo-Pacific zone off the east coasts of Africa and New Caledonia, through the Red Sea, the south of Japan and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.