A COMPARATIVE-ASSESSMENT OF THE FISHERIES IN LACUSTRINE INLAND WATERS IN 3 ASIAN COUNTRIES BASED ON CATCH AND EFFORT DATA

The catch and effort data of the artisanal fisheries of the natural lakes and reservoirs in the Philippines, and reservoirs in Sri Lanka and Thailand are evaluated. The yield (kg ha-1 year-1) to effort relationship of the Philippines lakes and Thai reservoirs conformed to a second-order curve, and that of Sri Lankan reservoirs was linear. Similarly, the catch per unit effort (CPUE) to effort per unit area relationships for the Philippines and Thai fisheries were similar and conformed to the Fox model. The relationship of the mean annual yield (kg ha-1) to mean effort in the Sri Lankan reservoirs when considered as a whole, on a yearly basis, conformed to the Schaefer model. On the basis of these relationships the effort which gave the maximum yield per annum was computed for each fishery. The yields were 515, 256 and 93 kg ha-1 for efforts of 20, 6.4 and 10 fishermen for the fisheries of the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, respectively. An attempt is made to explain the reasons for the apparent differences in these three artisanal fisheries, and the importance of the models in the management of the respective fisheries are discussed.