The International Marinelife Alliance (IMA) is a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 for marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 conservation. It is based in Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Activities

The International Marinelife Alliance was established in 1985. Its philosophy includes:

• Fishers and fishing
  Fishing
  Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
  
   communities must be at the centre of marine conservation efforts.
• Market forces rule the reefs, and market transformation must be a part of saving them.
• Governments must be a key partner in coral reef conservation.
• Marine conservation efforts must be founded on good science.

Since its foundation the institution devoted most of its attention to monitoring and combating the widespread use of cyanide to capture live reef fish

Reef fish

Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as particularly colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a...

 in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 and other countries. In early 1990s, Destructive Fishing Reform Initiative (DFRI) was initiated to ensure that the remaining reefs of the Pacific Region do not fall prey to destruction from the cyanide-based fishery. In 1999, IMA organized preliminary field expertise of the live reef fish trade in Ha Long Bay and Nha Trang

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a coastal city and capital of Khanh Hoa province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the North by Ninh Hoà district, on the East by the South China Sea, on the South by Cam Ranh town and on the West by Diên Khánh district...

 in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 responding the request for assistance from the Vietnamese Government (Ministry of Fisheries). Later the Alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding

Memorandum of understanding

A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...

 with the Institute for Fisheries Economics and Planning (IFEP) of the Vietnam Ministry of Fisheries for a cooperative program aiming to prevent destructive fishing, conserve marine resources and strengthen the monitoring in the live reef fish trade in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

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