Sadovy de Mitcheson, Leadbitter and Law, May 2018, Final Report to ADMCF pp. 131 History, profiles and implications of feed fish and fishmeal supply from domestic trawlers in the East and South China Seas 1Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson, 2Duncan Leadbitter, 1Calton Law 1 University of Hong Kong, Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of Biological 2 Sciences, Hong Kong; FISHMATTER, Australia Contact: [email protected] Report (+ Appendix I and II) to ADMCF: June 2018 Sadovy de Mitcheson, Leadbitter and Law, May 2018, Final Report to ADMCF pp. 131 Table of Contents Contents 1 SECTION 1 ........................................................................................................................ 10 1.1 General background ...................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Fisheries of the East and South China Seas; from past to present .......................... 12 1.3. Objectives of this Study ........................................................................................... 17 1.4. Methods .................................................................................................................. 17 2 SECTION 2 ........................................................................................................................ 19 2.1 General Introduction on Marine Fisheries in East and South China Seas and Growth in Demand for Aquaculture Feed ........................................................................................ 19 2.2 The role of bottom trawling .......................................................................................... 22 2.2.1 History of the trawl fisheries and their catches ......................................................... 23 2.2.2 Challenges in managing trawl fisheries ........................................................... 27 2.3 Managing multi-species fisheries in Asia....................................................................... 28 2.4 Regional responses – utilization versus selectivity and other perspectives on fishery management ....................................................................................................................... 29 3 SECTION 3 ........................................................................................................................ 33 3.1 Trawl Gear types, numbers, production volumes and areas fished ............................ 33 3.1.1 The use of trawls in Asia .................................................................................. 33 3.1.2 Types of trawl gear in use in Asia .................................................................... 34 3.2 Trawlers by country – numbers and production ........................................................... 36 3.2.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 36 3.2.2. Vietnam ........................................................................................................... 39 3.2.3 Philippines ....................................................................................................... 41 3.2.4 Malaysia ........................................................................................................... 44 3.2.5 China ................................................................................................................ 45 3.3 Areas fished and zone-based management, not including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) ................................................................................................................................. 46 3.4 Employment in the trawl sector and dependent industries ......................................... 51 4 SECTION 4 ........................................................................................................................ 53 4.1 Relative importance of trash fish in trawler production ............................................... 53 ii Sadovy de Mitcheson, Leadbitter and Law, May 2018, Final Report to ADMCF pp. 131 4.1.1 Production volumes and types ........................................................................ 53 4.2 Fish and shellfish that may be for local consumption or chilled/frozen export and relative proportions of ‘trash fish’ in catches ..................................................................... 57 4.2.1 Indonesia ......................................................................................................... 60 4.2.2 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 61 4.2.3 Malaysia ........................................................................................................... 65 4.2.4 Case studies (Vietnam and China) ................................................................... 67 4.3 Surimi, fish balls and similar products ..................................................................... 80 4.4 Catches of key species and surimi grades made from particular species ............... 83 4.4.1 Surimi use ........................................................................................................ 87 4.4.2 Percentage of production yield ....................................................................... 89 4.5 Fish meal, fish feed (direct feeding of whole fish) and other animal feeds ............ 90 4.6 Fish meal production volumes by country .............................................................. 93 4.6.1 Thailand ........................................................................................................... 94 4.6.2 Vietnam ........................................................................................................... 96 4.6.3 China ................................................................................................................ 97 4.6.4 Malaysia ................................................................................................................. 97 4.7 International Trade .................................................................................................. 99 4.8 Value of trash fish products .......................................................................................... 99 4.8.1 Thailand ......................................................................................................... 100 4.8.2 China .............................................................................................................. 100 4.8.3 Vietnam ......................................................................................................... 101 5 SECTION 5 ...................................................................................................................... 103 5.1 Resource management issues in the use of trawl fish catches in Thailand, Vietnam and China ....................................................................................................................... 103 5.1.1 Ecological context .......................................................................................... 103 5.1.2 Managing multi-species fisheries .................................................................. 105 5.1.3 Stock assessments ......................................................................................... 108 6 SECTION 6 ...................................................................................................................... 113 6 6.1 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 113 6.1.1 Distribution of trawling ................................................................................. 114 6.1.2. Uncertainties driven by lack of data/information ......................................... 115 6.1.3 Overfishing is widespread .................................................................................... 116 6.1.4 Countries at different stages of the development and management process 117 iii Sadovy de Mitcheson, Leadbitter and Law, May 2018, Final Report to ADMCF pp. 131 6.1.5 Some big and challenging questions ............................................................. 119 6.1.6 Fishery managers need to manage ............................................................... 120 6.1.7 Recommendations for future steps and data gaps ....................................... 121 7. Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 123 8. References ..................................................................................................................... 123 iv Sadovy de Mitcheson, Leadbitter and Law, May 2018, Final Report to ADMCF pp. 131 Executive Summary About 40 000 years ago the first modern humans made their way to Europe and began a process that transformed the ecosystems of the land from a vast wilderness to a patchwork of human dominated landscapes. Over thousands of years, many of the larger, slower growing species such as lions, the woolly rhinoceros’ and aurochs died out and the large swathes of old growth forests that had grown after the last ice age were cleared to make way for farmland and urban settlements. The creation of an agricultural landscape dominated by fast-growing species took about 5000 years to unfold to the present day. By and large the marine environment was spared the same large scale alteration until the twentieth century. The expansion of fishing in Asia, which took