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Capture Fisheries Unit |
Capture Fisheries Unit:
Capture of wild fish and other aquatic animals dominates fish production in the Lao PDR. It would be reasonable to estimate that 70 – 80 % of the total production is from capture fisheries and aquatic animal collection. The remaining 20 – 30% is from aquaculture.
Little quantitative and qualitative scientific information exists on the fish capture in Lao PDR, let alone capture of other aquatic resources such as frogs, turtles, tortoises, snails, bivalves, shrimps, crabs, snakes and others. Ongoing research will shortly provide detailed insight into this.
It is usually assumed that capture fisheries in Lao PDR is on a decline due to over fishing, environmental degradation, negative impacts from water management schemes and increased use of pesticides in agriculture. However, none of this is substantiated by scientific evidence. It may well be that increase in fishing effort due to e.g. population growth may have impacted negatively on fish reproduction in some specific locations or even on a larger scale, but this has so far not been proven. However, destruction of important habitats for living aquatic resources for whatever reason will imply substantial and in many cases irreversible reductions in the future catch potentials of wild fish and other aquatic animals and plants. This could pose serious threats to the food security and income generation of many people especially in rural areas. Such implications could not often be mitigated through increased, localized aquaculture production. Monitoring of aquatic resources and pro-active management actions to keep the production at high levels is thus of critical national importance.
Some important increase in food production from wild fish and other aquatic resources in addition to what may occur due to natural annual variations may result from stocking of water bodies in years to come. In the Lao PDR there is a scope for increased production from natural and man made, seasonal and permanent small water bodies from stocking of fish. Also the abandonment of destructive fishing practices and the adoption of appropriate resource conservation measures in suitable locations may lead to significant increase in production. Such developments would necessitate sustainable solutions to critical social issues related to resource access, tenure rights, enforcement of regulations.
The mandate of the Capture Fisheries Unit is to:
Current research projects for the LARReC Capture fisheries Unit
Assessment
of Mekong Capture Fisheries
Management
of River and Reservoir Fisheries in the Mekong Basin
Catch
per Unit Effort (CPUE) research studies
Deep pools survey in Siphandone area
For more information, please contact:
Mr.
Douangkham Singhanouvong, Chief of Capture Fisheries
Unit
Email: larrec@gmail.com
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