Report of Sub-Regional Training Workshop on Mixed Stock Fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand

Abstract

The Sub-Regional Training Workshop on Mixed Stock Fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand (GoT) was co-organized by the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 26–30 August 2024, at SEAFDEC Secretariat, Bangkok, Thailand.

The objectives of the Training Workshop were to: (i) develop and agree on a multispecies framework for assessing the status of multispecies fish stocks; (ii) agree on the set of indicator species to use as part of this framework (also insuring that they align with those for Fishing Area 71 for the FAO Reporting on the status of fish stocks as part of the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture and reporting on Sustainable development Goals); (iii) review existing multispecies and single-species assessments in GoT countries as a first step to defining the baseline for assessing the changes in stock status; (iv) review and describe possible data sets for each country to use in future multispecies assessment framework; (v) discuss targets and limit reference points (TRPs/LRP)s that could be used in the management of multispecies fisheries and discuss different harvest strategies and control rules that includes operational management procedures; (vi) discuss existent empirical approaches for the management of multispecies fisheries in a data-poor situation and (vii) agree on next steps for building on this work in implementing the GoTFish project “Promoting the blue economy and strengthening fisheries governance of the Gulf of Thailand through the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries”.