The Statistical Part of the Project:
The purpose of this mission was to work with the National Fisheries Taxonomy Consultant, U Myint Pe, on the manuscript field guide for identification of the living marine resources of Myanmar, and to conduct a two-day training on Fisheries Taxonomy. Work progressed on production of the complete version of the field guide, but was hampered by the need to revise the preliminary short guide issued for the statistics gathering part of the project. The two-day training was held for a total of 41 government fisheries personnel, but because of space limitations, two one-day trainings were held instead of one two-day training. The training was targeted specifically to support gathering of statistics in the field.
Departure Arrival
Norfolk - Yangon 19/7/97 21/7/97
Yangon - Norfolk 2/8/97 3/8/97
Much of the consultant's time was spent revising the abbreviated field fish species identification guide to the statistical units of Myanmar in order to make this document maximally useful for the statistics part of the TCP project. The consultant anticipated this would be straightforward based on the recommendations that would come from the short guide having been used in field exercises during the nine months since this guide was made available to the project. The intention was that staff engaged in statistics data collection would use the guide and come up with concrete proposals for its improvement. However, it turned out that the short guide was never used by the project and therefore it took most of the consultant's time to sort through nebulous field experiences in an attempt to pull together ways to improve the short guide. This was done through discussions with the staff of the statistical unit and finally through a formal discussion with the NPD. They decided that to add five statistical units to the guide would be best for its usefulness in the field.
The reason why the short guide was never used in the field is because the FAO National Statistics Expert directed the statistics people in the project to use during field exercises a rearranged version he did of the FAO guide. The expanded species list consisting of disaggregations of the aggregated statistical units in the guide, further confused matters. As a consequence, most of consultant's time was spent fixing the problems caused on the short fish species identification guide, rather than working on the long guide as per scope of this mission.
The short guide was finalized and progress was made on the long guide. In addition to finalizing the species composition for the short guide, the Myanmar names for all invertebrates were added in both westernized and Myanmar script. A list of species was also included in the short guide which can be copied and used as the basis for tabulating data at a fish landing or market. Most invertebrate common Myanmar names for species to be included in the long guide were also compiled, although there are a few outstanding ones that U Myint Pe will add when reviewing the manuscript. U Myint Pe is also going to continue researching information on bivalves, gastropods, and other minor invertebrates so that these can be included when he reviews the manuscript. A list of species caught by gear was completed, and this information will also be completed by U Myint Pe and included in the manuscript during his review.
An attempt was made to visit Sandoway, which is east of Yangon. This coastal town hosts small scale beach seine and trawling fisheries that operate during the rainy season, weather permitting. The consultant was hoping to gather information on species caught in these small-scale fisheries in the only major marine fisheries regions that had not been visited before. However, during the rainy season only two flights per week are scheduled and the flight was cancelled. Furthermore, although the consultants had government clearances and a vehicle from FAO, no driver could be found that was willing to make the 12 hour journey across the difficult roads.
The Fisheries Taxonomy training went well. Instead of one two-day training, two one-day trainings were held. This is because 41 government personnel were hoping to join the training and had come from far away part of Myanmar (Shan State, Myiek, Rakhine, and many others) but only around 20 people could be accommodated in the laboratory. In addition, the statistics part of the training, being held by Mr. Theo Visser of RAPA, could only accommodate about 20 participants. Therefore, the training was held as a direct lesson in the use of the short fish species identification guide for the statistical units, and as a lead-in to the statistics part of the training. There were 27 participants during the first training and 14 participants during the second day training.
The structure of the training was that during the morning a brief lecture was given to introduce trainees to the parts and structure of the `short' fish species identification guide. During the afternoon, a practical laboratory session was held in which trainees used the short guide to identify specimens compiled for the course down to a statistical taxonomic unit. Specimens of about 150 species, including most of those major statistical taxonomic units and a number outside the major units (miscellaneous category as a statistical unit) had been collected for the purpose of the course from fish landings and markets. These were fixed in formalin and preserved in alcohol as if to be kept for a long period as a museum specimen, or, if collected just prior to the training, preserved directly in alcohol and discarded after the training.
During the morning lecture the consultant explained the purpose of the `short' fish species identification guide. Several hundred species are commonly caught in the fisheries of Myanmar, and it is difficult to keep track of all these at landing sites. If all specimens are to be identified down to species level, than this would result in too many categories that would be difficult for field personnel to keep track of. This would ultimately result in poor statistics. Therefore, the solution is to keep track of only the most important species or groups of species and these are designated as the "statistical units." The FAO statistics personnel recommend a maximum of about 50 statistical units (too many more would be too confusing for field personnel collecting the data) and the Myanmar system utilizes a total of about 60 statistical units. This covers only the marine species, and freshwater fishes are not covered under this guide. A separate guide is being compiled for freshwater species. However, a few species will be found in both the marine and freshwater guides because they tend to migrate between or are typically found in both marine and freshwater.
The consultant explained that the most important statistical units are chosen based on a number of factors : for example, species that contribute the greatest weight or frequency in catch, such as the Hilsa shad (Nga tha lauk), Lizardfishes (Nga pa lway), Torpedo scad (Pyi daw tha), Threadfin bream (Shwe nga), and Largehead hairtail (Nga da gon). In addition, some species that may be of very high economic value are included regardless of their frequency in the catch. These include taxonomic units such as shrimp (Pazun), lobster (kyauk pazun), and pomfret (Nga moke phyu). Typically excluded as separate taxonomic units are those species of low economic value such as batfish, (Nga late pyar sold at 15 kyats/viss) and those less often caught but still marketable. These other species are still compiled for statistics purposes, but lumped together under the category of Miscellaneous marine fish (Yaw nga). Trash fish not used directly for food are also lumped together into a single statistical unit category (Sont pyit nga).
The consultant also explained that there are many problems with this approach to try to distill the many hundreds of species into relatively few taxonomic units. For example, in small scale fisheries different species are going to have different relative importance than in large scale fisheries. Different seasons will also have different species that will gain or loose importance in the catch. In addition, species composition will change from one year to the next due to natural population fluctuations and because fisheries pressures will often change species composition. Also, different fisheries, using different gears will have different species that are important and a short list of taxonomic units needs to cover all the different species caught by all gears. The economic importance of a species or species group can also change, as for example if species not consumed locally suddenly become important in an export market because of tastes in other countries. Another big problem is that there are many multispecies groups that end up as statistical taxonomic units. These multispecies groups are not very useful for biological management which must be species specific. However, these multispecies units can be made more meaningful for biological management if a parallel monitoring scheme is in place that systematically looks at all species caught by gear type using quantitative and statistically sound methods. Because of the need for parallel monitoring schemes, and the fact that species importance changes with time, the project will provide a comprehensive guide to the species caught in fisheries of Myanmar.
After introducing the trainees to the theory behind the short fish species identification guide, the consultant went over the short guide itself, explaining that it consisted of three parts, going through each of the parts in detail:
1) Synopsis of Statistical Units: which is a pictorial list, and a quick reference for those already familiar with the species and just need a reminder. This section may be all that is needed to refer to for many seasoned field data gatherers. The consultant illustrated each of the 60 units to point out their importance and composition and pointing out that some units consist of one species, some of more than one species (multispecies units) and giving the logic of how these were constructed. The consultant also cautioned the trainees that the figures used cannot be really a multispecies figure and that it should be kept in mind that they represent a number of species in some cases and therefore should not be used literally in these cases.
2) More detailed section with fish species identification guide using taxonomic characters. Each of the major biological groups are preceded by a section on Terms and Measurements and the consultant explained the major characters in each of the major groups : that the object, when identifying an unknown species is to match the characters but to keep in mind that there are only 60 statistical units even if they are likely to encounter many more species. Therefore, if a match is not made, the species should be assigned to the miscellaneous category.
3) List of species. This is a simple list that can be copied and used as basis for tabulating data during a landing site or market survey.
During the afternoon laboratory session the trainees examined the many species placed in water in large basins (specimens previously preserved in alcohol). They were asked to look at each species and classify each one based on the statistical units found in the short guide and use the different parts of the short guide to identify the units, as appropriate.
Freshwater and Marine Fisheries Taxonomy Training: One aspect of the project that has been going well is the taxonomy part. The final fish species identification guides to marine and freshwater fisheries will be long lasting useful contributions that will help strengthen Myanmar statistics through accurate taxonomic identification. One discovery that is readily apparent, however, is that much work still needs to be done to ensure near 100% accuracy of the freshwater fishes. This is simply because very little work has been done on freshwater fishes of Myanmar historically, and the FAO consultant, Dr. Ferraris, has discovered that many of the freshwater fishes that regularly enter fisheries are new to science and need to be worked on further. Investing a little further in this aspect of the project, by sending Dr. Ferraris to Myanmar for another 3-4 week mission in November, will further strengthen this aspect of the project. This should be tied in to a one week training on freshwater fisheries taxonomy. This sort of training is relevant, especially in view of the fact that the statistics part of the project intends to do a survey of the Mandalay markets. Training in the fisheries taxonomy of freshwater fishes will help strengthen the statistics gathering capabilities of Myanmar. Perhaps by the time Dr. Ferraris gives his training, the microscopes that have been ordered by the project will have arrived and therefore be directly useful in this statistics strengthening project. In addition, Dr. Ferraris is experienced in fisheries work and competent in statistics, and he could usefully provide advice as necessary given a proper briefing about the background of the project.
The consultant recommends that U Myint Pe be sent on a study tour to the Indo-Pacific Fish Conference being held in New Caledonia at the beginning of November this year. This symposium would afford him an opportunity to meet and interact with most of the major ichthyologists in the region and he would benefit from hearing the papers to be presented. His attendance would not only be a great advance in his training, but can also be useful to complete the editing of the manuscript field guide together with the consultant who will also be attending these meetings and running a workshop entitled "The Future of Ichthyological Research in the Indo-Pacific". The exercise to work personally on the manuscript would be very useful for the national consultant.
The problems with this project stem almost exclusively from the absence of adequate technical assistance. ARTFISH has been introduced to the Fisheries Department and it is now up to them to pursue further implementation.
The consultant cannot envision where adding activities beyond what is currently planned for the statistics part of the project, with only a few months remaining, would yield significant results. He would also, however, recommend that a future statistics-strengthening project be pursued to follow up and reinforce the present gains, and continue on where the present project has left off. The consultant would also recommend that any future project targeting statistics enlist the help of an international fisheries statistics expert to help introduce fresh ideas into the system.
The consultant would like to commend the NPD, U Nyi Nyi Lwin for doing the best under difficult circumstances. Without his help and encouragement, the taxonomy side of the project would not have been as successful as it was.
