II. Project Activities Implemented during National Statistician's - Assignment Period
1. Computer Training for the Staff
2. Species Guide for Field Enumerators and for Training Purposes
3. Frame Survey of Yangon Division
4. Data Collection and Catch Analysis on Industrial Fisheries (Trawlers)
5. Training on Grouping and Ranking Programme
6. Species Coding List for Industrial Landing Forms
7. A Study Tour to Mee Pya and Thi La War Fishing Villages
8. Visit to Marine Resources Centre and Fish Landing Site
9. Assistance to National Gear Technologist and Aquaculturist
10. Training on "The Collection of Catch and Effort Statistics, and Basic Sampling Theory"
III. Constraints on the Implementation of the Project
IV. Conclusions and Recommendations
I am very grateful to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for offering me an assignment as National Expert/Fisheries Statistician. I am also very grateful to Dr. Prem Nath for his constant support in project activities and the staff of FAO Representative Office in Myanmar for their co-operation.
I also feel deep gratitude to U Soe Win, Director General of Fisheries, U Nyi Nyi Lwin, National Project Director, Daw Ma Ma Lay (Counterpart) and project assigned assistants for their co-operation and assistance provided me.
Finally, I am very grateful to Ms. Dora Blessich, Project Operations Officer (RAPR), Dr. Veravat Hongskul, Senior Fishery Officer (RAPI), Dr. C. Stamatopoulos, Senior Fishery Data Officer (FIDI) Rome, and Mr. Theo Visser, Information and Statistics Officer for their kind supervision and co-operation during my assignment.
The expert was assigned to the TCP project "Reformulation and Strengthening of Fisheries Statistics System" from 3 June 1996 to 2 June 1997 as per terms of reference in Annex 1.
During project inception, the expert collaborated and assisted the project National Director in the preparation of the project work plan with specific reference to the activities to be carried out by the project national gear technologist and aquaculturist.
A backstopping visit took place in July 1996, composed of the FAO Senior Fisheries Statistician, RAP information officer and Project Operations Officer.
Project activities were agreed to include during the period August 1996 to February 1997 the following :
1) To train in the use of computer up to six staff
2) To identify landing sites, places from which boats go out fishing, most common type of fishing craft, gear and fishing method and approximate monthly catch per fishing craft by type
3) To conduct frame survey in Yangon Division and make use of Grouping and Ranking Programme for the selection of important fishing villages
4) To sample for calculation of CUPE (catch per unit effort) by each boat/gear type with assistance of a minimum of two full-time recorders after giving them suitable training
5) To prepare of species/species group list which should be 40-50 species
6) To study the landing of industrial fisheries
Daw (Ms) Ma Ma Lay, Deputy Staff Officer of Planning and Statistics Division was named by National Project Director as part-time Counterpart during the National Fisheries Statistician's twelve months assignment. Six more part-time service personnel were assigned to the project for training and assistance in implementation of project activities.
The expert arranged for the training of ten staff members in the use of MS Word, Excel and Myanmar scripts at MCC Computer Centre. The company had also been engaged for the installation of project computers.
The expert prepared the brief guide for temporary use, since there was no such guide for reference for field enumerators and assistants. The guide book covers of 23 main species group plus 22 separate species, totaling 45 species and species groups with 58 illustrations of fish and prawn. This was subsequently substituted by "Identification Guide to the Proposed Marine Fishery Statistical Units of Myanmar" issued by the FAO consultant taxonomist. The expert inserted necessary amendments and corrections particularly with respect to Myanmar names. He also recommended inclusive of 33 Myanmar names for six species occurring in industrial fisheries. The expert finally compiled a species guide for field enumerators based on the Species Guide provided by the FAO taxonomist and inclusive of species occurring in the industrial landing. The species guide prepared for field enumerators comprises 72 species, i.e. 56 species in the latest industrial landing forms and 16 species most common in small-scale fisheries. In this guide, the English common names are arranged in alphabetical order, Latin names, Myanmar names in English and Myanmar names in Myanmar characters are given for easy reference.
The data collection for frame survey was carried out in November 1996 and it was assigned to Yangon Division Township Fishery Officers because no full-time data collectors were assigned to the project. The expert designed and modified a form provided by FAO and adopted to include vessel specifications. This was translated to Myanmar.
A total of 1,100 completed forms were received from Yangon Division consisting of six townships and 40 villages.
As part of a market survey to study the fish price fluctuation, the Department of Fisheries collected landing of fish from three jetties : Ahlone, Kyi Myin Daing and Nyaung Dan. Data collection was made from 124 trawlers during the months of August - October 1996 to estimate total catch, catch per boat on a commercial grouping (large, medium and small fish) basis. Preliminary results showed that at Ahlone jetty, in August 96, the average catch per vessel was 18.2 MT, and in September 17.5 MT. AT Nyaung Dan jetty the average catch during the months of August and September was 26 and 24 MT respectively. Landing of average catches at Kyi Myin Daing jetty during August, September and October were 14, 21 and 18 MT respectively. The assistants were trained to estimate monthly catch per boat and landing by species with the use of simple hand calculators. The RAPA technical backstopping officer would design and provide an Excel worksheet to calculate total monthly landing and prices by species. The programme was provided in January 1997 and counterpart and assistants were trained in its use although auto-summation was not yet fully functional, and is being adjusted.
In January 1997, the RAPA fisheries implementation/statistics paid another backstopping visit to assist in the rescheduling of the work programme which was considerably delayed in view of late assignment of counterparts and date recorders. The plan was drawn for a sample survey of artisanal fisheries to take place during the period January - May 1997.
Out of the forty fishing villages in Yangon Division, only a few representative were selected as representative villages for sample survey on the basis of the number of boats and fishermen. The selection of the fishing villages was done using the FAO Grouping and Ranking Programme (GRANK).
Project assigned personnel were trained in running the computerized GRANK programme, starting from tabulation works of fishing villages with reference to choice of criteria for inputting data.
A species coding list was prepared from industrial landings of fish and prawn. There are 48 codings for fish, 6 codings for prawn and lobster, and 2 codings for cuttle fish and squid, totaling 56 codings of species/species group. Landing forms reflect for, some species, two to three different prices, usually due to different size. Because of price variations, re-coding was done such as large, medium and small size, Thus, the numbers of coding increased from 56 to 112.
The expert accompanied the counterpart and assistants in a field trip to Mee Pya and Thi La War villages to study data collection carried out by township fishery officers and to collect information regarding boat/gear type, fishing seasons and catch disposal.
There are five fishing methods used in these two fishing villages, namely, (1)
bottom set gill net for Indian threadfin (ka ku yan), (2) drift/gill net for miscellaneous
species : Indo - Pacific Spanish mackerel (nga kkun shut), queen fish (zar pyet), triplet tail (pin lei nga pyay ma), and cat fish (nya yaung), (3) trammel net for croakers, (4) drift/gill net for hilsa shad (nga tha lauk), and (5) tiger mouth net for miscellaneous species of juvenile of fish and shrimp.
The Indian threadfin (ka ku yan) bottom set nets at Yangon river mouth and trammel nets for croakers in the Yangon river are the most important fishing methods due to the operation of larger numbers of boats, higher quality of fish and vicinity to Yangon.
Regarding fishing seasons, with the exception of drift nets for hilsa shad in Mee Pya village and river trammel nets for croakers in Thi La War village, all other fishing are carried out off the rainy season. Fishing seasons are usually relatively short and for fishing methods only during few days in a month and also associated with the period of high tides.
In co-operation with Marine Resources Centre and the project National Taxonomist U Myint Pe, training was provided to counterpart and assistants for three days to study identification of fish and prawn at the centre and at fish landing site at Ahlone jetty.
The expert assisted National Gear Technologist (2 m/m) and Aquaculturist (1 m/m) in the preparation of their reports in the form of provision of references, outlines based on their terms of references, discussions, corrections of the reports and suggestions for improvement starting from June 1996. The report of the National Aquaculturist is at the final stage of completion; the Gear Technologist has submitted the first draft in the last week of May 1997 and this needs to be completed to take into account the small-scale fisheries, and particularly the classification of fishing gears.
The expert prepared a manual "The Collection of Catch and Effort Statistics, and Basic Sampling Theory". Among the seven persons assigned to project duty, only the counterpart is a graduate with statistical background; two are sciences graduates; and the other four assistants are non-graduates. The expert considerably simplified the text of FAO publications to meet their requirements. The manual covers basic concepts on : purpose of collecting catch and effort statistics, differentiation of catch and landing, measurement of fishing power and time, methods of data collection, sample survey method, frame survey, basic idea of grouping and ranking programme.
The expert has explained the benefit of sampling such as reduced cost, greater speed, greater scope, and greater accuracy. The expert has also made it clear an account of random sampling, random sampling error, and bias. In addition to these, the manual also includes a brief on some statistical terms of calculation of mean, variance, standard deviation and confidence limit (percentage of accuracy).
At the request of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries the expert contributed to the organization of a workshop on Fisheries Management and Planning. With a review of the latest world catches emphasizing the depletion of resources in neighbouring countries due to overexploitation. All the neighbouring countries have exploited their fisheries beyond the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).
Myanmar is the only country in the region where fish stock potential does exist with good scope for expansion and development. Myanmar Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) has potential to raise its MSY form 1,037,000 MT to 1,220,000 MT.
In the workshop the expert has suggested that over-fishing and depletion of the fish stock could be avoided if Myanmar practises closed season, closed area, mesh size regulation and restrictive licensing.
Due to lack of two full-time data recorders, the project could not collect routine data boat/gear/species wise on daily or bi-weekly basis for 3 - 4 months to run ARTFISH programme and to calculate CUPE (catch per unit effort) in small-scale fisheries.
For routine data collection, essential equipment, such as calculators, floor balances, spring balances and hand balances are still not yet provided by FAO. In addition to these, equipment and materials suggested by Mr. Theo's Back to Office Report (Feb. 1997), such as official MS-Office software, one UPS, CD-ROM player, CD-ROM's (Fishbase and fish related titles) and reference books on fishery statistics are also not yet provided by FAO. The expert understands the FAO representative was authorized such disbursements at project inception, but was awaiting detailed specifications from the National Project Management.
The project activities have given to the counterpart and assistants a fairly good knowledge regarding identification of fish and prawn, designing of data collection forms, running of grouping and ranking programme, collection of catch and effort statistics data, sampling of fishing boats and calculation of mean, variance, standard deviation.
In order to maintain their knowledge, experiences lively and to carry on project activities, a separate office room and a minimum of at least four persons should be assigned on a full-time basis. The expert recommends U San Win and U Kyaw Soe be assigned as full-time data recorders and Daw (Ms) Ma Ma Lay (in charge) and Daw Thida Aye for full-time data processing since they have already been working in good pairs with a good team spirit.
FAO also should give continued support to the project by supplying the equipment, materials and continued technical backstopping.
