Report of the Regional Training Course on Larval Fish Identification and Early Life History Science

Abstract

he SEAFDEC/UNEP/GEF Project on Establishment and Operation of a Regional System of Fisheries Refugia in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, in collaboration with the Research and Development Division of the SEAFDEC/Training Department, organized the Regional Training Course on Larval Fish Identification and Fish Early Life History Science from 16 to 27 November 2022. The training course, held at the Training Department in Samut Prakan/Thailand, aimed to improve fisheries biologists' knowledge and techniques to work on early life history science and identify larval fish species, considering that larval fish data are crucial in stock identification to indicate spawning locations and times and as an index of spawning stock biomass. Ichthyologists led by Dr. Yoshinobu Konishi, former scientist of the Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan, as well as other resource persons from the Department of Fisheries, Thailand; Kasetsart University, Thailand; University of the Ryukyus, Japan; and the University of Nottingham, Malaysia, joined as a team. In the end, twenty-six fisheries biologists from 8 ASEAN Member States (AMSs), including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, possess an improved understanding of fish early life history science and skill in larval fish identification for further application for managing the fish stock at national and sub-regional levels through strengthened regional cooperation on larval fish networking.