As of this month, parrotfish (landaa) are now a protected species in the Maldives.
The Maldives enacted a new, enhanced Fisheries Act in September 2019. Under the new act, a new and improved general fisheries regulations was published on 30 August 2020 with immediate effect. Included in the regulations is a list of protected species.
Parrotfish (scaridae) is a sub-family of wrasses, and plays an important role in bioerosion. With their strong beak-like teeth, they gnaw algae off of coral reefs and excrete sand. One parrotfish can produce up to 200 pounds of sand in one year.
The hermaphroditic marine species are females for the first phase of their lives. But once a certain age or size is reached, they switch to being male.
Just before night falls, the parrotfish finds a safe spot and spends an hour to secrete and cover their entire body with mucus, in order to disguise their scent from predators.
Others protected marine species in the Maldives include the parrotfish's distant cousin Napoleon Wrasse (maahulhunbu landaa), corals, black coral (endheri), rays (madi), sharks (miyaru), cetaceans, berried lobsters, giant clams (gaahaka), whalesharks (fehurihi), seaturtles and their eggs, triton conch (sangu) and lobsters with a carapace smaller than 7.6cm in length.
Marine species banned from exporting include lobster and lobster meat, top shells (gonu foo enburi), corals and sea anemones, eels (ven), pufferfish (koli), oysters (ithaa), spider conch shells (raakani), silver-mouthed turban (sandhara) and octopus (boava).
Additionally, the types of baitfish used in Maldivian fisheries are also banned for export. The species listed in the regulation include silver sprat (rehi), blue sprat (hondeli), cardinal fishes (boadhi/fathaa), anchovies (miyaren), fusiliers (muguraan), big-eyed scad (mushimas) and chromis (niyamehi).
