Developing Participatory Fisher Surveys to Monitor Fish Catch in the Mekong River Basin: Results of Pilot Study in Lao P.D.R.
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Over 60 million people depend on fish from the Mekong and its tributaries for protein, and many engage in small-scale subsistence or commercial fishing. Accessible information on small-scale Mekong fisheries is essential to developing better estimates of the scope and scale of inland fisheries and understanding their contribution to the economy and food security. FISHBIO has been developing a participatory standard fish sampling program as part of a larger effort by several organizations to form a Mekong Fish Network among several organizations. The objective of the program is the regular, long-term collection of basic fishery-dependent data following robust, standardized methods, which will provide information on status and trends of Mekong fishes. Using participatory methods also engages local in data collection and enhances their capacity to enact conservation and sustainable fisheries co-management. Information generated from this monitoring will inform resource management through village-level regulations. In 2013, FISHBIO piloted the proposed sampling protocols in two villages of Lao People’s Democratic Republic in a district where there are no existing government programs to study wild capture fisheries. Local fishers were trained to record basic data on their catch each day they spent fishing, such as species name, fish length, total biomass, gear type and fishing effort. Fishers caught more than 54 species in the three-month period, including two species of commercially valuable fish listed as “endangered” on the IUCN Red List, Probarbus jullieni and Probarbus labeamajor. We are currently evaluating the survey protocols to explore their application to other settings in the Mekong Basin
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Developing Participatory Fisher Surveys to Monitor Fish Catch in the Mekong River Basin: Results of Pilot Study in Lao P.D.R.
- 1. Developing Participatory Fisher Surveys to Monitor Fish Catch in the Mekong River Basin: Results of Pilot Study in Lao P.D.R. Shaara Ainsley, Sinsamout Ounboundisane, Erin Loury and Harmony Patricio
- 2. Mekong River Basin • Home to more than 850 species of fishes • Provides food for 60 million people in six countries • Inland and transboundary fishery • Subsistence & commercial fishing Fisher in Mekong River near spawning habitat of endangered Probarbus species
- 3. Mekong Fish Network The Mekong Fish Network supports partners in the lower Mekong River basin to advance the study and management of the region’s unique and valuable aquatic life. • Evolved from discussions with partners, stakeholders • Increase and improve fisheries information by: – Building local technical capacity – Facilitating dialogue and collaboration – Creating connections and provide tools • Standard Sampling Program – Participatory Fisher Surveys
- 4. Why a Participatory Approach? • Traditional management systems co-management • 2009 Lao Fisheries Law: Committees for the Management of Fisheries in Participatory Fisher Surveys Bodies of Water • To “collect annual statistics related to fisheries”
- 5. Pilot Study Goals Primary: Evaluate standard sampling protocols for biological monitoring of fisheries Secondary: Species of Interest • Jullien’s golden carp (Probarbus jullieni) & Thicklipped barb (Probarbus labeamajor) • Both species are commercially valuable fish listed as ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red List
- 6. Location of Study Ban Ang Noi: Population: 759 Full-time fishers: 6 Ban Sakai: Population: 986 Full-time fishers: 7
- 7. Fisher Survey Methods • Protocol development based on MRC, FAO, and others • November - January • 5 fishers from each village (10 total) • Fishers maintained their normal level of fishing effort and gear choice • Key indicators: – Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) – Species richness – Maximum fish length by species
- 8. Methods: Two-day Training Course for Fisher Technicians
- 9. Fishers were trained in basic fish catch data collection techniques
- 10. Summary of Pilot Study Preliminary Results • Fishers reported using: – bottom longlines (bet piak join) – gill nets (mong) – cast nets (he) – drop-door basket traps (jun) • Primary gear type and fish species composition differed between villages • Fishers reported more than 54 species (40 genera) in a three-month period
- 11. Results: Number of individuals in Catch – Ban Ang Noi ATRU = Amblyrhynchichthys truncatus Ave. Max = 12 cm SL 89% FiMSeA (http://ffish.asia) Gill nets were 66% of gear reported
- 12. Results: Number of individuals in Catch – Ban Sakai 44% BAGA = Bagarius spp. (example Bagarius bagarius) Ave. Max = 23 cm SL FiMSeA (http://ffish.asia) Longlines were 57% of gear reported
- 13. Results: Target Species Catch Probarbus spp. • 22 individuals were reported (11 - 89 cm standard length) • Caught throughout the study period • 86% reported by fishers from Ban Ang Noi – These fishers used nets more often than Ban Sakai
- 14. Conclusions • Heterogeneous fisheries practices (dynamic system) • Engaged fishers in collection of information relevant to co-management • Fisher involvement enhances stewardship of fisheries resources • Confirmed juvenile and mature adult Probarbus in catch • Pilot effort assessment of protocols identified strengths and weaknesses
- 15. Protocol Assessment - Strengths • Fishers consistently recorded effort for unsuccessful fishing trips • Obtained species composition and gear use data for the fishery in two villages • Obtained basic information on endangered Probarbus species
- 16. Protocol Assessment - Opportunities for Improvement • Fishers reported confusion over some aspects of data collection (esp. fishing effort) • Involve the fisher technicians in datasheet design • Focused only on wild-capture fishing methods predominately performed by male fishers in the region
- 17. Future Directions • Locally - Sangthong District: Establishing formal co-management regulations Establishing, enforcing, and monitoring fish conservation zones Continue monitoring their fishery harvest levels • Regionally - Mekong Fish Network: Step back from standard sampling program development focus more on capacity building and facilitating collaborations
- 18. H Thank you to The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and FISHBIO for funding this study and to David Hewitt (USGS), and Chrissy Sonke. A special thanks the villagers of Ban Sakai and Ban AngNoi and the DAFO staff of Sangthong District Thank You! Funding Provided by:
- 19. Thank You. Shaara Ainsley shaaraainsley@fishbio.com
- 20. Developing Participatory Fisher Surveys to Monitor Fish Catch in the Mekong River Basin Submitted Abstract Over 60 million people depend on fish from the Mekong River and its tributaries for protein, and many engage in small-scale subsistence or commercial fishing. Accessible information on these small-scale Mekong fisheries is essential for developing better estimates of their scope and scale, as well as assessing their contribution to the economy and food security. FISHBIO has been developing a participatory standard fish sampling program as part of a collaborative effort to form a Mekong Fish Network among several organizations. The objective of the program is regular, long-term collection of basic fishery-dependent data following robust, standardized methods, which will provide information on the status and trends of Mekong fishes. Using participatory methods engages local people in data collection and enhances their capacity to enact conservation and sustainable fisheries co-management. Information generated from this monitoring will inform resource management through village-level regulations. In 2013, FISHBIO piloted the proposed sampling protocols in two villages of Lao People’s Democratic Republic in a district where there are no existing government programs to study wild capture fisheries. Local fishers were trained to record basic data on their catch for every day they spent fishing, including species name, fish length, total biomass, gear type and fishing effort. Fishers reported more than 62 species in a three-month period, including two species of commercially valuable fish listed as “endangered” on the IUCN Red List, Probarbus jullieni and Probarbus labeamajor. We are currently evaluating the survey protocols to explore their application in other settings in the Mekong Basin.
Editor's Notes
- I will be speaking today about a pilot effort to test a participatory fisher survey methods for monitoring fish catch in the Mekong River Basin.
- The Mekong River is home to more than 850 species of fishes, making it one of the most diverse fish assemblages in the world. These fish provide food for more than 60 million people in six countries Many people living in the Mekong Basin engage in small-scale subsistence or commercial fishing, but a lack of accessible information on these small-scale fisheries makes it challenging to understand their scope and scale, as well as assess their contribution to the economy and food security.
- A few years ago we began discussions with partners and stakeholders about the idea of creating a network to advance the study and management of fish and other aquatic resources. The Mekong Fish Network is in the process of being developed as a voluntary association of people interested in expanding knowledge of the Mekong’s unique and valuable fish assemblage. The Network includes individuals, researchers, and resource managers representing public, private, and academic groups working in countries across the Lower Mekong Basin. The goals of the network are to: Build the technical capacity of local people and institutions to study Mekong fishes and improve understanding of Mekong Basin fish assemblages. Facilitate dialogue and collaboration across borders to encourage basin-wide study of Mekong fishes. Create connections and provide tools that enable Mekong fish researchers to share their knowledge. As part of this effort FISHBIO and our partners at the U.S. Geological Survey began developing a standard fish sampling program, with one component being the participatory program. The objective of the Participatory Fisher Surveys will be to obtain basic long-term fishery-dependent data on a continuous basis, with the emphasis on the temporal and spatial scope rather than depth of detail of information.
- Why did we chose a participatory approach? Under the recent Lao Fisheries Law, the regulations for co-management of fisheries are developed at the village-level and approved by higher levels of government. However, many villages still do not have an existing set of regulations or management strategy. Using participatory methods engages local people in data collection and enhances their capacity to enact conservation and sustainable fisheries co-management. Information generated from this monitoring will help them in their resource management.
- In 2013-2014, FISHBIO piloted the proposed Participatory surveys in two villages of Lao People’s Democratic Republic in a district where there are no existing government programs to study wild capture fisheries. The primary goals of this pilot effort were to: 1) Test the proposed standard sampling program protocols and methods, 2) Obtain essential data on fish catch to inform effective management and conservation, and to build the capacity of the local community to participate in data collection A secondary objective of this pilot study was to test the protocols in an area that was known for harvesting Probarbus species, a genus of commercially valuable fish that is also listed as endangered. We were interested to find out how often Probarbus were captured in this reach of the Mekong River. Project data collection was conducted by fishers from the villages of Ban Ang Noi and Ban Sakai, near habitat believed to be utilized by Probarbus during spawning. The pilot study period was selected as November through January because this period is believed by the villagers to be the spawning period based on catch of gravid females and fish behavior.
- Project data collection was conducted by fishers from the villages of Ban Ang Noi and Ban Sakai, near habitat believed to be utilized by Probarbus during spawning. The villages are located just upstream from the capital city of Vientiane at a part of the Mekong River that forms the border between Laos and Thailand. The pilot study period was selected as November through January because this period is believed by the villagers to be the spawning period based on catch of gravid females and fish behavior.
- The survey protocols were intentionally developed to be compatible, to the extent possible, with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Fish Abundance and Diversity Monitoring protocols used by the MRC at various locations in the Lower Mekong Basin. The protocols were also informed by key publications such as the Guidelines for the Routine Collection of Capture Fishery Data (FAO) and work by Dr. Ian Baird and colleagues on fisheries in Southern Lao PDR. The fishers were trained to record essential data on their fish catch and fishing effort for each day they spent fishing. The key fisheries indicators for the participatory fisher surveys: Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) Species richness Maximum fish length by species 10 fishers total were trained as fisher technicians and two representatives of the Lao Women’s Union were selected as data keepers The fishers were asked to maintain their normal level of fishing effort, and not to modify their behaviors or methods based on their participation in the program.
- In October 2013 - all fisher technicians and the Lao Women’s Union representatives received instruction during a two-day, hands-on training session with FISHBIO researchers and Provincial and District government staff
- Fishers were taught to use the sampling equipment to accurately and precisely measure and weigh their fish catch Researchers and fishers walked through the data collection process step-by-step, and fishers learned how to record information on the datasheets The gear data collected included the type of gear used (i.e., net, longline, hook, trap, or other), dimensions of the gear, habitat where the gear was set (e.g., mainstream, floodplains, wetlands, estuaries and rice fields), and the number of hours each gear type was fished. The fish data collected included fish species, species-specific fish counts and total weights, and individual fish lengths.
- I will just mention briefly here some of the results of this pilot study. We have just completed QAQC of the data and are just starting to look at it. While it was a very small scale study it is interesting to note that both gear type and fish composition differed between these villages that are relatively close providing a example of the variability in these small-scale fisheries. NOTE: The abstract reported more than 62 species were captured, but this has been scaled back due to uncertainty in identifying some fish to species.
- In Ban Ang Noi, the most common gear type was a net (usually a gill net) The gill nets ranged in length from 10 m to 100 m long and were most often left to fish passively in the water, but in many cases (about 26% of the time) fishers using gill nets reported actively herding fish into the small mesh nets (generally less than 4cm mesh). In Ban Ang Noi, the most common species captured was a relatively small cyprinid, Amblyrhynchichthys truncatus which was often captured using gill net with people herding fish into the net. It is a relatively small fish, and it made up 89% of the individual fish captured during the study in this village.
- In Ban Sakai, the most common gear type was a bottom longline, but some fishers also used single hooks, gill nets, and drop door traps. Fishers tended to use one main gear type, however two fishers (one in each village) used nets and longlines in roughly even proportion In contrast, A. truncatus only made up 2.5% of the individual fish captured in Ban Sakai, where species of catfish from the genus Bagarius (which were not identifiable to species because of the taxonomic confusion surrounding the group) was the dominate fish in the catch, making up 44% of the individual fish captured in the village. The second most common fish recorded in Ban Sakai was Pseudolais micronemus, which is also a catfish species. In Ban Sakai the species catch by individuals was more even "Kano Y, Adnan MSB, Grudpan C, Grudpan J, Magtoon W, Musikasinthorn P, Natori Y, Ottomanski S, Praxaysonbath B, Phongsa K, Rangsiruji A, Shibukawa K, Shimatani Y, So N, Suvarnaraksha A, Thach P, Thanh PN, Tran DD, Utsugi K, Yamashita T (2013) An online database on freshwater fish diversity and distribution in Mainland Southeast Asia. Ichthyological Research 60: 293-295".
- Probarbus species were not frequently seen in the catch, making up less than 0.5% of the catch by number of individuals in both villages. However, Probarbus of all size classes were captured during the study period, with a majority of the catch in Ban Ang Noi Smaller juvenile Probabrus that were generally not identified to species were captured in November, later in the sampling period individuals of both labeamajor and jullieni were captured.
- There is currently no existing line agency program in Sangthong district to study fishes in the Mekong River. This project represents the first wild capture fisheries research project to take place in this area, and the local government staff welcomed the opportunity to be involved in a fisheries project. This project proved successful in gathering important data on juvenile and reproductively active adult Probarbus fishes, as well as raising awareness about the need for their conservation Sangthong District fishers are now capable of recording information such as the presence of fish species, number of fish species, and fish biomass in their own village, which they can can use to make fishery management decisions at the village-level. Assessment of pilot effort identified strengths and weaknesses of protocols
- Fishers consistently recorded effort on days when they did not catch fish (unsuccessful fishing trips), which is important for estimating catch-per-unit-effort. This was a challenge in our previous participatory study in Laos and we were able to overcome this because the fishers themselves were collecting the data (rather than villagers collecting data at the landing site). We obtained species composition and gear use data for the fishery in two villages We obtained basic information on harvest of endangered Probarbus species, which was a secondary objective of the study.
- This was a pilot study and thus we identified a lot of opportunities for improvement For example, it was discovered after the first month of data collection that several fishers were not properly trained in the process of recording start and end times, or had misunderstood the training and were recording their time spent checking their passive gear for fish, rather than recording the time the gear was left in the water. It was not possible to readily identify these incorrect records after the fact, and separate them from correctly recorded times. thus it was not possible to estimate effort (and catch-per-unit-effort) for some fishers Fishers sometimes forgot to record all the necessary information into the form and it was difficult to go back days later and remember what information should be written on the forms. We did not involve the fisher technicians in the design of the datasheets, which could have prevented some misunderstandings and ensured more accurate data collection. For this project we focused on the kind of wild-capture fishing that is predominately performed by male fishers in the region. While men generally fish from boats in main river channels, women usually collect fish, frogs, snails, insects and other aquatic animals from wetlands, rice fields, mangroves, or nearshore areas. To get a more complete assessment of wild capture harvest we need to survey all household members who conduct fishing related activities.
- There are currently no fish conservation zones (FCZs) or fisheries management committees in the area of study. However, participants in the two villages expressed considerable interest in establishing these, and both actions are allowed at the community level under Lao fisheries law. After evaluating the results of the pilot study, and after discussions with local and regional stakeholders we have recently decided to take a step back from developing this sampling program and first focus on local capacity building and connecting researchers who are currently conducting monitoring before moving forward with the sampling proggram I welcome the opportunity to discuss these topics with anyone who's had similar experiences with trying to establish standardized data collection programs. Please seek me out after this session or shoot me an email. Additional Results: Extending the sampling period: This study was conducted in the early dry season (Oct-Jan), which is a time of lower fish abundance. The capture of juvenile and reproductively active adult Probarbus fishes confirms their presence in the study area during this season. The fishers strongly recommend that sampling be continued through the mid-to-late dry season (February-June) when fish abundance and harvest levels typically are at their highest, and when fishers have previously caught juvenile Probarbus.