The results of our study lead us to advocate concepts of EAF and balanced harvesting for small island fisheries and a series of approaches to securing this. The first priority is to establish both open and restricted fishing areas. While Kotania Bay does not have a designated no-fishing zone under an EAF system, part of the bay is effectively a no-fishing area reserved for the pearl culture industry. An (unpublished) census we undertook on reef fish in the pearl culture area showed that larger fish were abundant. The relative densities, composition and movements of reef fish in and across the boundary are unknown due to no clear boundaries being set up, however, we hypothesize that a ‘spillover’ of fish may be occurring from the cultured area (McClanahan and Mangi, 2000) to the benefit of the bay fishery in general. Further, a detailed study is needed to examine this hypothesis in order to support the Maluku government’s implementation of the National Fish Barn program, involving the establishment of restricted fishing areas.