Toward Systematic Breeding of Asian Sea Bass, Lates calcarifer (Bloch, 1790), in Malaysia: Status, Challenges and Prospects for Future Development

Asian sea bass, Lates calcarifer (Bloch, 1790), is one of the most farmed marine fish in Malaysia since the 1970 s and is predominantly cultured at present.Although it has been farmed for some time, there is no systematic breeding programme in place.Local hatcheries rely heavily on wild and imported broodstock.However, imported stocks do not guarantee improved quality and even increase the chances of introducing pathogens into the country.

9th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, Okinawa, Japan, 24ï¿½28 June 2013

News

9th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, Okinawa, Japan, 24ï¿½28 June 2013
15 Aug, 2012

(http://www.fish-isj.jp/9ipfc)

Symposium: Top predatory fish in the Indo-Pacific ecosystems

Alexei M. Orlov

Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries & Oceanography, Moscow, Russia

(e-mail: orlov@vniro.ru)

Top predatory fishes of Indo-Pacific region are represented by the variety of different species, including sharks, large skates and rays, barracudas, lancetfish, daggertooth, tunas and billfishes, halibuts, sablefish, cod, toothfishes, etc. However, diet compositions and forage resources consumed by these large predators are studied insufficiently, level of feeding competition between them is largely unknown, and the role of top predators in the ecosystems is poorly understood. Meanwhile, many of top predators are important targets (e.g. tunas, billfishes, halibuts, cod, sablefish, toothfishes) of trawl, longline, net, pot, trap, and troll fisheries. These fisheries may impact ecosystem structure, e.g. if large top predators are overfished, abundance of forage fishes may increase or one predatory fish might be replaced by another. The knowledge of feeding habits and trophic relations of large top predatory fishes might help to understand fluctuations of their abundance and to make exploitation of their resources sustainable.

Symposium themes:

Diet composition of top predatory fish in different areas of Indo-Pacific region;
Forage resources consumed by top predatory fish in the Indo-Pacific;
Trophic relations and feeding competition between large top predators;
Fisheries impact to ecosystem structure through the harvest of both large top predators and/or their forage resources.

These are main topics within the theme of symposium but papers related to other relevant topics within symposium overall theme are encouraged.

Participation: Colleagues interested to attend this symposium should contact organizer (see email addresses above) detailing their proposed contributions (prospective title, oral or poster) till 31^th July at the latest. See you in Okinawa!