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SMALL PELAGIC RESOURCES AND THEIR FISHERIES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION ASIA-PACIFIC FISHERY COMMISSION FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC RAP Publication 1997/31 SMALL PELAGIC RESOURCES AND THEIR FISHERIES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION Proceedings of the First Session of the APFIC Worldng Party on Marine Fisheries Bangkok, Thailand, 13-16 May 1997 Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand, 1997 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of itsauthorities, or concerning the delinutation of its frontiers or boundaries. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) alone and do not imply any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO and APFIC. NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The copyright in this publication is vested in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any method or process, without written permission from the copyright holder. Applications for such permission with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction desired should be made through and addressed to the Senior Fishery Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Maliwan Mansion, Phra Athit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand. ii PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT This Proceedings consists of the Conclusion and Recommendations of and the papers presented at the First Session of the APFIC Working Party on Marine Fisheries held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 13 to 16 May 1997. The papers have been edited by M. Devaraj of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin, India, and P. Martosubroto of the Fishery Resources Division,Fisheries Department, FAO, Rome, Devaraj, M., and P. Martosubroto (Eds). 1997. Small Pelagic Resources and their Fisheries in the Asia-Pacific region. Proceedings of the APFIC Working Party on Marine Fisheries, First Session, 13 - 16 May 1997, Bangkok, Thailand.RAP Publication 1997131, 445 p. ABSTRACT The publication contains the report of and the papers on small pelagic resources and their fisheries presented at the First Session of the APFIC Working Party on Marine Fisheries held in Bangkok, Thailand, 13 - 16 May 1997. The first section contains review on small pelagic resources and their fisheries in the Asia-Pacific region and the conclusion and recommendations of the Working Party, while the second section contains 11 papers presented and discussed at the Session. The third section are additional reports provided by the scientists of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Cochin, India, to fill the gap relevant to issues addressed, especially those related to environmental factors and future collaborative activities. Distribution: Participants at the Meeting Members of the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) FAO Fisheries Department Fishery Officers in FAO Regional Offices PREFACE The APFIC Working Party on Marine Fisheries convened its First Session at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand, 13 to 16 May 1997, to address issues concerning small pelagic resources and their fisheries in the Asia-Pacific region.The Session was attended by its members from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, aswellasrepresentativesfrom Japan and theSoutheast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC). The list of participants appears in Appendix A. The Worldng Party discussed various issues confronting the small pelagic fisheries including issues relating to biological and oceanographic studies, problems associated with stock identification and assessment as well as issues confronting the management of the fisheries.Country papers presented at the Session formed the main source of the discussion upon which conclusion and recommendations were formulated. Itiswidely known that the small pelagic resources are sensitive to environmental changes. Trend of landings of the Japanese pilchard (Sardinops melanostictus) showed a clear fluctuation in the last decade where the catch had declined since 1988 and dropped to a low level in 1995. It was believed that such fluctuation was very much related to the environmental changes occuring in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. The presence of Dr. Andrew Bakun, an oceanographer who has dealt with global environmental changes, and his presentation at the Session regarding the impact of global environmental changes on the small pelagic fisheries in various regions provided a general understanding on the potential impacts of local and global environmental variations on the well being of the small pelagic resources. The Working Party noted the paucity of information on environmental aspects especially in the Southeast Asian countries. However, an enormous amount of information and data relating to the oceanographic features of the northern Indian Ocean are available in the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Cochin, India. The Indian participant, Dr. M. Devaraj who is also the Director of the Institute, agreed to provide such information through a review paper on the matter to complement the papers presented at the Session.Working closely with Dr. Devaraj, several scientists of CMFRI subsequently contributed additional papers which appear in Section III of the Proceedings. These papers addressed environmental aspects of the northern Indian Ocean, common issuesin the assessment of tropical, short-lived and multispecies fisheries and their consequences in the management decision. Unlike the oceanographic data from the northern Indian Ocean which are available in one country, those from the South China Sea region are scattered in various institutions in many countries which prevents one from conducting a relatively quick analysis that can be included in the current proceedings. Sucha review, hopefully, could be presented in future session of the Working Party. The editors acicnowledge the contributions of members of the Working Party and additional information supplied by them after the Session. Special appreciation goes to staff of the CMFRI who contributed papers and provided secretarial assistance as well as facilitated endless cominunications with the co-editor during the finalization of the editing process. Last but not the least, the editors are grateful to the APFIC Secretariat, especially to Dr. Veravat Hongskul and Ms. P. David, in organizing the Session and their continued support until the final publication of the proceedings. The Editors vi CONTENTS Page SECTION I: Review of the Small Pelagic Resources and their Exploitation 1-16 in the Asia-Pacific Region (P. Martosubroto) A Comparative Account of the Small Pelagic Fisheries in the APFIC Region (M. Devaraj and E. Vivekanandan) 17-61 Conclusion and Recommendations of the Workshop 62-65 Appendix A: List of participants 66-68 SECTION II: Small Pelagic Resources in Australia (C. O'Brien) 69-72 Review of the Small Pelagic Resources and their Fisheries 73-90 in the Chinese Waters (Q. Tang, X., L. Tong, Jin, F. Li, W. Jiang and X. Liang) Status, Prospects and Management of Small Pelagic 91-198 Fisheries in India ( M. Devaraj, K.N. Kurup, N.G. K. Pillai, K. Balan, E. Vivekanandan and R. Sathiadhas) Review of Small Pelagic Fisheries of Indonesia (J. Widodo) 199-226 Review of the Small Pelagic Resources and their Fisheries 227-243 in Japan (T. Wada) Small Pelagic Fish Resources and their Fisheries in 244-258 Malaysia (Phaik-Ean Chee) Review of the Philippine Small Pelagic Resources and 259-299 their Fisheries (R. Calvelo) Review of the Small Pelagic Fisheries of Sri Lanka 300-336 (P. Dayaratne) Review of the Small Pelagic Resources and their Fisheries 337-364 in the Gulf of Thailand (S. Chullasorn) Small Pelagic Fisheries in the South China Sea (H. Yanagawa) 365-380 vii SECTION III: Fisheries Environment in the APFIC Region with Particular 381-424 Emphasis on the Northern Indian Ocean (V.N. Pillai, M. Devaraj, and E. Vivelcanandan) Stock Assessment Implications and Management Options 425-436 for the Small Pelagics in the APFIC Region (M. Srinath and M. Devaraj) Regional Cooperation for Managing Marine Fish Stocks 437-445 in the APFIC Region (M. Devaraj and E. Vivelcanandan) viii SECTION I REVIEW OF THE SMALL PELAGIC RESOURCES AM) THER EXPLOITATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION by Puruito Martosubroto Marine Resources Service, Fishery Resources Division Fisheries Department, FAO, Rome, Italy Abstract The total landings of the small pelagics in the APFIC region have been declining since 1988 from 13.1 million mt to 12.7 million mt in 1995 at the rate of 6% in 7 years. The catches in Japan declined from 6.3 million mt in 1988 to 2.4 million mt in 1995 due to decline in the Japanese sardine landings. China has emerged as the world leader in fish production. The catches of the Indian oil sardine fluctuated widely along the Indian southwest coast. This is also true with some of the major small pelagics in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recommended that the assessment of the small pelagic stocks in the region should take into account both fishing effort and environmental data. INTRODUCTION Among the twenty member states of the APFIC (Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, France,