Training Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
Abstract
The FAO Guidelines specified that longline fishery must develop and implement combinations of hook design, type of bait, depth, gear specification, and fishing practices that minimize sea turtle bycatch, incidental catch, and mortality (FAO, 2005). Hook modifications in particular are expected to be one of the most effected tolls in reducing incidental sea turtle mortality. Take into account on the geo-topographic features in the Southeast Asia waters, about 60% of the sea water areas identify as deep sea where the sea is deeper than 200 m, for examples, in the Andaman Sea, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Eastern Indian Ocean, Banda Sea, Sulawesi Sea., highly migratory species such as tunas, tuna like species, billfishes and others are classified as highly migratory species. It is expected that those large pelagic species existed in the region are still resources. SEAFDEC therefore proposed to conduct the fishing experiment base information collection in many sea areas namely Andaman Sea, the South China Sea and Sulu Sea of member countries’ EEZ. A series of field surveys has been carried out accordingly in collaboration with the SEAFDEC member countries using SEAFDEC Research vessel M.V.SEAFDEC and M.V.SEAFDEC
