Minute on Bangkok Meeting 3 April 2006, 0900 1300 Venue: Room 311, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand Participants: Chairman Delegates from China Prof.Dr. Jacques Moreau (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d Agronomie de Toulouse) Prof.Dr. Li Shiyu Assoc.Prof. Liu Yu (School of Environmental Science and Engineering Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou) Delegates from Vietnam Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong Mr. Mai Viet Van (College of Aquaculture and Fisheries Cantho University, Cantho City) Delegates from Thailand Dr. Mala Supongpun (Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives) Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ruangrai Tokrisna (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Kasetsart University) Report: Ruangrai started by welcoming the participants and then she invited Jacques to chair the session. Each participants introduced themselves and then Jacques summarized the objective of WP4 : development of the ecological components of the ECOST model for which Dr. Villy Christensen is the leader and Jacques acting as a deputee leader. Information from Villy on the requirements 1
for an ecopath model was given to each participating countries. 1 Each country was invited to present country profile for the ECOST study. Phuong presented Vietnam profile 2, local officers would be contacted for information gathering, proposed study sites covered Dong Hai and Long Phu in the upper and middle Mekong estuaries close to Cantho University. There were mangroves in Dong Hai, thus the marine/mangrove protected area. Fishing activities included captured fisheries as well as aquaculture. Long Phu were paddy and forest areas. Shrimp culture had been developed. There were mangroves, wild calm. Fishing activities were both near shore and off shore. Ecological data needed to be updated for Vietnam. Jacques inquired about the manpower. There will be 4 persons involved in the project. Master degree students could be recruited. It was expected that two students would start working on their theses on relevant topics in June 2006. It was noticed that the data on phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthos was in 1996 and the biomass might not be specific for the selected sites. Phuong explained that information would be updated. Near shore fishermen would be asked to record their catches in a year round. Within the selected study sites, they were near shore, at 20-30 meter depth. Ecological data were not available for specific selected study sites. Jacques informed that data might be available from the Fish Base Website www.fishbase.org Other participants of the WP4 could provide assistance on data sources. 1 Details in the file - Ecost Ecosystem Requirements. 2 Details in the file CTU Vietnam Presentation in Dakar March 2006. 2
Jacques further inquired about the important species to be incorporated. It had not been yet definitely selected so far but those to be included were fish, crab, shrimp and squid. Liu Yu presented China profile. Selected study site was the Pearl River Delta. 3 There were dolphin protected area and mangroves in the selected study site, a high biodiversity area. Fishing activities included fishing and sea ranching. Data on catches were available, by area and gear type. Catches from small scale fisheries would be from fishing villages. Fishing gears included purse net, trawl, set net, gill net, and fishing tackle. Data on environmental quality included land pollution (due to sewage and agriculture) and sea pollution. Data inventory were available for biomass, density, CPUE, micro algae, phytoplankton, zooplankton, microbial chain. There were data on mammals and mollusks. Catches included fish, crustaceans and mollusks. Data sources would also be available from field investigation, scientific publication, government departments, as well as unpublished data. There were master students working on EwE. Data on dolphin diet composition was also available. The depth in selected study site was up to 20-30 meters. Jacques mentioned the posibility of limiting number of fishing gears to be less than five and to select common species for the three Asian countries. Ruangrai presented Thailand profile, focusing on economic aspect. 4 Mala presented Thailand profile, focusing on ecology. The selected site was the Gulf of Thailand. Time series were available for 30 years. Data were also available from research vessels. There were data on pelagic and 3 Details in the file - CORC Bangkok Meeting. 4 Details in the file Thai Fisheries. 3
demersal species, zooplankton, phytoplankton, biomass, nutrient intake, and resource abundance. There was a lack of data on heavy metal residues. For fishing gear there were 6 main fishing gears. Catch data, in term of CPUE was available. Push net was to be banned. There had been studies on trawl and push net. Data on biomass were available by area, from research vessel. Biological parameters could be obtained from FISAT. There was also study on diet content. Jacques introduced some of the screen appearing in the ecopath software and how to input data in ecopath both in the ecological and economic screens and the link between ecology and economy. For the ecosystems, the three Asian countries agreed on not over 50 meter deep ( 20-30 meters for Vietnam and China and 30 for Thailand). Vietnam might select two main fishing gears due to limited time series data availability. China proposed purse seine, gill net, trawl, and set net. Thailand proposed trawl, purse net, push net and gill net. After a discussion it was agreed that the ecological model would include Detritus, benthic algae, phytoplankton, zooplankton, mollusks, crabs, shrimp, cephalopods, other benthic invertebrates (food for fish) Predators: birds, mammal, shark (may need at least one and may be different by country). Fish: Vietnam would select 10-15 species. China would decide later. Thailand proposed mackerel, sardine, anchovy, tuna, bream, and trash fish. Jacques summarized the availability and plans to obtain appropriate data for the three Asian countries as follows. DC Q/B P/B 4
Vietnam: Survey planned China: Literature review, Chinese literatures Thailand: Some works existed. Stomach contents Literature review Maxims for a few species Predictive model of Palomares, Pauly (1998). Few species, e.g. dolphin Predictive model of Palomares, Pauly (1998). Some already existed. Fish Base FISAT on available data Other models Predictive model Update previous of Palomares, value of the Pauly (1998). ecopath model, with new samples and analysis when possible. Reported by Ruangrai, 05 April 2006 5