Report of the Fourth Regional Workshop on Shared Stocks: Research and Management in the South China Sea, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, 24th - 26th January 2000

A report is given of the discussions held at the 4th Workshop on Shared Stocks in the South China Sea area, which focussed on small pelagic fisheries and their management measures. The workshop was attended by participants from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and other observers. Country Status reports were presented by each participant, and include updated data and information regarding the status of their pelagic fishery resources and management experiences. These country reports are included as annexes to the document, together with other papers which also were presented at the workshop, abstracts of which are cited individually. The workshop identified and adopted, among others, the following recommendations: 1) The SEAFDEC should further facilitate and enhance activities on the compilation of catch/effort statistics, research on biological aspects and stock assessment of shared stocks, and studies on environmental conditions and use of Geographical Information System (GIS); 2) Sustainable data collection systems, particularly for the shared stocks, should be promoted; 3) More efforts should be focused on stock identification and delineation studies using morphometric, meristics and DNA based protocols