Subject: Regional Workshop on Sustainable Aquaculture and Biodiversity Conservation of Coral Reefs

From: [email-masked] (Rooney Biusing)
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 03:28:17 GMT

Workshop Title : Regional Workshop on Sustainable Aquaculture and Biodiversity Conservation of Coral Reefs

Organisers : DOF (Department of Fisheries Sabah), IDS (Institute of Development Studies Sabah), NACA (Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific), UMS (Universiti Malaysia Sabah)

Location :-  The East Asian Seas area is a global centre of marine biodiversity and within this area the coastal waters around the State of Sabah in Malaysia have a particularly rich and diverse marine community.  The workshop will be held in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the State of Sabah, Malaysia.

Workshop Date :- 4-8th December 1996 (tentative date, subject to change)

Venue :- to be decided later (tentatively at Sabandar Resort, Tuaran, Sabah)

The workshop will cover two main topics :-
i) 	status of the breeding and grow-out technology of groupers, wrasses and other coral-reef associated fish species; and 
ii) 	resource management issues, including environmental impacts of the collection of wild grouper/coral-reef associated fish fries/juveniles, and management of adverse interactions on the environment, etc.
  
Background

NACA is cooperating with DOF, IDS and UMS in organising a regional workshop on the aquaculture of groupers and coral reef-associated marine fish.  The workshop is organised in response to the increasing regional interest in the aquaculture of high value tropical marine fishes (e.g. groupers and wrasses), and increasing concern over the environmental impacts of the marine live fish trade. The workshop is intended to:

i. 	review the present status of culture of groupers and coral reef associated fishes, particularly the captive breeding of major reef fishes;

ii. 	review the social, economic and ecological impacts, including those on biodiversity, related to the live reef fish fishery and aquaculture;

iii. 	identify specific needs for promoting aquaculture and sustainable management of reef fish resources, such as research, information, policy development and training for the responsible development of the industry; and

iv. 	identify common problems related to reef fish aquaculture in the Asian region, and to explore ways for regional cooperation to overcome such common problems.

Participants :-  Workshop participants will include Malaysian and regional experts involved in grouper or reef fish breeding and aquaculture, and coral reef fishery management.  

Topics to be covered include: 

status of breeding of groupers and other candidate coral-reef associated fish species;
reef fish aquaculture management practices (feeding, stocking, harvests);
social/economic/environmental impacts of reef fish aquaculture;
impacts associated with capture of wild seed and the live fish trade;
marketing aspects; and
management of grouper and reef fish resources and integration into coastal area management planning.

Workshop outputs :  
The workshop proceedings will be published under a joint publication of DOF, NACA, IDS and UMS. It is expected that the publication would provide guidance to aquaculturists, scientists, policy makers and coastal resource managers involved in reef fish aquaculture and coral reef and coastal resources management.

ENQUIRIES :
Please contact :

Rooney Biusing (organising chairman)
Fisheries Research Center, 89400 Likas,
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
e-mail : [email-masked]
<Rooney Biusing>
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah,Malaysia.
e-mail : [email-masked]