Yap’s coastline contains an
extensive area of mangroves surrounded by a reef flat that extends
from 200 metres to 3,500 metres. The reef flat has an average
depth of 2-3 metres at high tide and at very low tide much of the
reef flat can be dry apart from the deeper holes and the few
channels, of which some are as deep as 20 metres. Much of the reef
flat is a mixture of limestone pavements and outcrops with some
sediment cover. An extensive band of sea grass sits on the reef
flat sediments immediately out from the mangroves. 426 species of
fish and four species of turtle have been documented for Yap, and
dugong and whales have been caught/stranded on the island.
Fish, crabs, turtle and coconut have and continue to provide the
majority of the meat and protein required by Yapese. There are
many different types of fishing practices used in Yap and there
are many associated cultural and social practices associated with
fishing. The types of fishing practices include the use of various
types of nets, line fishing, spear fishing, fish traps, bamboo and
stone/rock weirs on the reef flat in association with a canoe or a
bamboo raft, and outside the reef in a canoe. The various fishing
practices can involve just a few men or a large number of men
working together with a net.
In some fishing practices, men would gather beforehand in the
faluw (men’s meeting house) at the times of the year that is
conducive for catching the fish sought after. Group fishing
provides for the sharing of the catch with participants and others
in accordance with local customs, and if just a few people carry
out the fishing, contributions, gifts and tribute need to be made
to others in accordance with local customs.
Of the weirs, the aech is by far the most durable and extensive
today, although some remains of the similar shaped bamboo weir can
still be found. It is unknown when the first aech was built or
when many of the remaining ones were built in Yap. It is
considered that all the aech have descended from three, the first
located in Dalipeebinaew, the second in Weeloy, and the third is
located in Gagil, although some consider the current aech
have descended from seven different aech and built by spirits . It
is also thought the majority were built hundreds, possibly more
than a thousand years or more ago, with an unknown number being
built since European contact and an even smaller number being
built in more recent years.
In an ethnography of Yap prepared by the Yap Cultural Inventory
Group from a 1989 survey, they documented:
Fishing in Yapese society used
to be well regulated with strict rules imposed by traditional
authority and power. Ownership of marine areas were as well
defined as it was with the ownership of land. Fishing rights and
privileges were regulated by the society to ensure that Yapese
waters were never over fished or misused. Many of these rules
are no longer observed. … Owners are either not paying much
attention to who is fishing in their waters, or are feeling
overwhelmed and powerless to take action to stop those who are
fishing without permission.
The Yap Cultural Inventory Group recommended a number of
initiatives to reconstitute traditional ownership rights and the
power to protect this natural resource, amongst which included:
People need to be encouraged to
use more ecologically sound fishing methods such as traditional
stone weirs and bamboo fish traps. … The reconstruction of aech
could be undertaken as village projects for communal use. Or
several could be constructed by owners and used as a type of
supermarket, where individuals could select fish from the aech
upon paying a small fee or giving a percentage or number of fish
to the owner.
