The Ministry of Fisheries is still working to decide on the levels of fines for infringements or for breaching the Kawakawa and Donu ban.
The Ministry has banned all harvesting, local sales, and export of Grouper or Kawakawa and Coral Trout or Donu fish species from last Friday to 30th September this year.
The Ministry says they are giving some time for sellers to sell off the Kawakawa and Donu they might have caught before the ban was put in place.
After this period, the Ministry will be working closely with enforcement officers from other agencies to monitor all local fish catches as well as sales.
The ban is to allow for spawning of the two species of fish during this breeding season.
The Ministry says all fishermen, divers, middlemen and exporters will need to adhere to this ban.
Minister for Fisheries, Semi Koroilavesau says that a stand has to be taken to stop the rapid decline and continued overfishing of these two highly targeted reef fishes.
The Ministry reveals that 80 percent of the known breeding sites in Fiji for these two reef fishes are declining or gone.
