Three SEAFDEC staff namely Ms. Pattaratjit Kaewnuratchadaaron, Senior Policy Officer, Dr. Supapong Pattarapongpan, Fishery Oceanographer and Fish Stock Assessment Researcher, and Ms. Suwanee Sayan, Senior Project Planning and Management Officer participated in the FAO Regional Workshop for a Network of Practitioners on Fishery Stock Assessment from 23 to 25 January 2023 in Bangkok (Hybrid format). The workshop aimed at giving a broad background on the status of stock assessment practices in South and Southeast Asia including an overview of the status of stocks in Asia, understanding what assessments are being carried out in Southeast Asia, Southern Asia, and Southern China. The approaches being used to make these assessments; to identify approaches that are best suited to different fisheries within the region, given the current resources available for assessments and level of data collection; identifying human capacity development needs to enhance stock assessments in the region; and for the long-term, to examining the value of forming a network of people for assessing Asian fish stocks and build a community of practice in stock assessment.
During the workshop, Dr. Supapong presented the regional stock assessment conducted by SEAFDEC such as neritic tunas stock assessment, stock assessment in Sulu and Sulawesi Seas (SSS), and related projects e.g. Anguillid eels, Indo-Pacific Mackerels, tagging project, Purse Seine project, etc. In addition, he also served as the facilitator of the Southeast/East Asia group to share and discuss the topic of “Future networking and capacity-building for enhancing stock assessment in Asia” and presented the results from the working group to the Final Plenary Session. After that, the workshop summarized the results from each group to the Plenary Session includes key observations, key technical observations, technical recommendations, communication & economics, regional and sub-regional networking, and other needs related to the stock assessments.
