Fishery management

Malaita is known as the most populous province of the Solomon Islands, with high outputs of agricultural produce from its land and significant populations of ‘sea people’ highly reliant on coastal ecosystems for food and livelihoods. As Malaita grows in population and develops economically, it will face increasing pressure on its fisheries and marine resources to feed its population and create sustainable livelihoods. In some areas, fishing pressure has already led to decline of key fish species, and malnutrition remains a problem.

This map indicates all FADs that have been deployed in Malaita from 2012 to 2020 and their current state as active or otherwise.

This factsheet includes a map that indicates activities undertaken by World Fish and the Malaita Provincial Fisheries Office to support community-based resource management of local marine resources and the current status of management as active or otherwise.

The booklet explains the better management practices (BMP) for producing high-quality genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) monosex seed. These simple and low-cost methods have been tested and proven over five years of research and development in Timor-Leste. The goal is to support the scaling of fish farming to contribute to food and nutrition security. The booklet is intended as a resource for governments, I/NGOs and private sectors involved in tilapia seed production and grow-out systems in the tropics across the Asia-Pacific region.

National fish hilsa was declining in Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh took several measures like the establishment of sanctuaries, bans on catching of brood hilsa and its offspring jatka, and reduced the illegal gears. USAID/ECOFISH-Bangladesh project joints hand with the coastal fishing communities and stakeholders by establishing an adaptive fisheries co-management in hilsa shad sanctuaries as one of the key strategies to revitalize the once-degraded stock of hilsa shad in the Padma-Meghna riverine-coastal habitats.

The Timor-Leste National Aquaculture Development Strategy (NADS) 2012–30, which was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) with technical assistance from WorldFish, emphasizes implementation through joint ventures between government, INGOs, NGOs and the private sector to realize its success. The 2nd Timor-Leste National Aquaculture Forum was held on 8 August 2019 in Dili. Attended by 106 participants from a diverse range of stakeholders including government, non-government, private sector organizations and farmer groups.

Hilsa: Status of Fishery and Potential for Aquaculture is a proceedings book, which is edited by an international team of experts and authored by 10 international expert teams working on different disciplines of the hilsa shad. Hilsa is a widely distributed fish within the Bay of Bengal region and harvested in the waters of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. It is famous worldwide for its delicious taste and superb texture, which persist for a long time. Hilsa is unique in that it contains high amounts of both proteins and lipids.

The term ‘Blue Economy’ is increasingly used in various marine sectors and development frameworks. For it to be a truly useful approach, however, we argue that social benefits and equity must be explicitly prioritized alongside environmental and economic concerns. This integration of social dimensions within the Blue Economy is required to ensure that marine economic sectors contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.

The Darwin-Hilsa project is developing an incentivebased system of hilsa fisheries management in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to assess the socioeconomic status of local fishing households. Many are extremely vulnerable, owing to the seasonal nature of fishing and unpredictable flows of income. Coping strategies include informal loans, livelihood diversification, and migration, while many flout fishing restrictions to cover costs and repay loans.

The hilsa is a critically important species for smallscale fishing communities in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta and Rakhine State. Yet current fishing regulations are inadequate and exploitation rates are well beyond sustainable levels. This study analyses key parameters underlying hilsa biology, comparing them across different ecological zones of the hilsa’s range in Myanmar and across time. It provides evidence of major spawning activity between July and September in the freshwater zone, particularly in September.