SEAFDEC/IFRDMD, represented by the Chief Dr. Arif Wibowo, Deputy chief Dr. Takuro Shibuno, and two scientists, Ms. Ni Komang Suryati and Ms. Melfa Marini attended the back to back Workshop on Statistics of Tropical Anguillid Eel in Southeast Asia and Workshop on Eel Aquaculture and Statistics of Tropical Anguillid Eel in Southeast Asia in Manila, Philippines on 23-25 April 2019. The workshop was part of the project entitled Enhancing Sustainable Utilization and Management scheme of Tropical Anguillid Eel Resources in Southeast Asia funded by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF). The workshop was participated by over 40 participants including resource persons, assessment committee, a representative from Department of Fisheries from the ASEAN Member States, eel farm (Indonesia, Philippines, and Viet Nam), SEAFDEC Secretariat, SEAFDEC/AQD, as well as SEAFDEC/IFRDMD. On the first day of the workshop some issues regarding the tropical Anguillid eel in South-east Asia for instance status of its utilization, ecology of inshore migration, genetic connectivity, trends and status of the international trade were raised. Moreover, Japan’s conservation and management measure of Japanese eel was presented by the Fisheries Agency of Japan by teleconference. On the second day, the participants attended the Aquaculture workshop discussing on status and overview eel culture industry from Philippines, Indonesia, and Viet Nam. It continued with the observation and perspective on Anguillid eel culture in Japan and result of eel aquaculture survey in the Philippines. Furthermore, the aquaculture workshop raised an issue regarding the nursery rearing trial, disease, morphometric and genetic identification of glass eel species used in aquaculture. Finally, the workshop was closed by the launch of the manual for farming of eel to the improve survival rate of juvenile eel created by SEAFDEC AQD. On the last day of the workshop, the participants had a chance to visit and observe the eel farm in Calaca, Batangas.
SEAFDEC/IFRDMD was involved in the new project of SEAFDEC Secretariat entitled “Strengthening the effective management of inland fisheries and aquaculture in the ASEAN Member States with Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing technology in Tonle Sap Great Lake, Cambodia, on 25 February to 2 March 2019. The participants were from SEAFDEC/Secretariat (Mr. Isao Koya), SEAFDEC/ Training Department (Ms. Siriporn Pangsorn and Dr. Noppon Manajit), SEAFDEC/IFRDMD (Dr. Dina Muthmainnah and Mr. Taufiq Hidayah) and were guided by Mr. Hem Rady and Ms. Chay Kang Kruy from Fisheries Administration, Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia. The objective of this survey was to hold field survey planning meeting for request fishers to record catch data on the logbook and made a system to collect catch data of the site “Tonle Sap” in Cambodia, and to collect information on the fishery condition of the site. The field meeting with fishers was held in Siam Reap Province, Battambang Province, Pursat Province, Kampong Chhnang Province and Kampong Thronn Province. The briefing session for fishers in each village started with introducing the project from Mr. Koya and continued by explaining how to fulfill the logbook from Mr. Chay. The data will be collected by six number of fishers, supervised by one enumerator for each province. Kind of data that will be recorded are the status of the fishing village, the status of the fishing operation, and type of fishing gear by sampling fishers. On the last day, all participants visited the Fisheries Administration in Phnom Penh, and report to Dr. Buoy Roitana (Deputy Director-General) for the temporary results.