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Chapter 13 Biodiversity of fishes: Capacity building in Project-3 Keiichi Matsuura Collection Center, National Museum of Nature and Science, 3-23-1 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan Introduction In parallel with the research activities of the Fish Group in the JSPS-Coastal Marine Science Program (Matsuura, Chapter 6, this volume), members of the Fish Group have worked to enhance capacity building for fish diversity research in the member countries through various activities. These include education in fish taxonomy for young researchers through workshops with training courses. Our activities are summarized below. Fish Taxonomy Workshops with Training Courses As in other marine organisms, taxonomy of fishes requires special knowledge and expertise in particular morphological characters. As one of the major activities of the project, we organized workshops with training courses on fish taxonomy, putting emphasis on practical identification. During the periods from 2003 to 2009 we held seven workshops with training courses in five member countries, with a total of ca. 200 participants (ca. 28 participants/work- shop) (Table 1, Fig. 1). This program was implemented to provide young scientists in Southeast Asian countries with opportunities to learn comprehensive knowledge on the taxonomy of marine fishes including collection methods and specimen photography and preservation. In general, each workshop started with introductory lectures on marine fishes and sampling techniques for one day (Fig. 2), followed by one-day lectures on taxonomy and fish diversity provided by experts from the member countries. This was followed by one or two days of training for identification of fishes collected from local fish markets. When possible, the participants visited local fish markets and/or fish landing places to see and collect fresh specimens. The collected fish specimens were identified to generic and/or species level using FAO fish identification guides and/ or local fish identification resources. After taking photographs of the specimens, they were preserved in formalin and deposited at local and/or Japanese museums for future research. S. Nishida, M. D. Fortes and N. Miyazaki, eds. Coastal Marine Science in Southeast Asia —Synthesis Report of the Core University Program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science: Coastal Marine Science (2001–2010), pp. 125–128. © by TERRAPUB 2011. 126 K. M ATSUURA 30 Oct.−2 Nov. 2009 Vietnam 32 28 30 Marine Science Research Center, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Port Dickson Marine and Coastal Resource Research Center Lower Gulf of Thailand, Songkhla Do Son Marine Station, Institute of Marine Environment and Resources Thailand 15−20 Mar. 2009 Malaysia 31 25 Indonesia Philippines 27 25 Phuket Marine Biological Center, Phuket Institute of Oceanography, Nha Trang Research Center for Oceanography, LIPI (held in Bintan Island) University of the Philippines, Visayas, Iloilo 27−29 Sept. 3−7 Oct. 12−14 Sept. 4−8 Oct. 29 Nov.−3 Dec. 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Thailand Vietnam Co-sponsor Country Date Year Table 1. List of workshops with training courses on fish taxonomy by the JSPS CMS Project. Number of participants Publications In addition to the scientific papers published in periodical journals, several leading members of the fish group published field guides for fishes of Bitung, northern Sulawaesi in Indonesia, and Libong Island and the Andaman Sea in Thailand (Kimura and Matsuura 2003, Matsuura and Kimura 2005, Kimura et al. 2009). These field guides are also available on the internet through the web site of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo (http:/ /www.kahaku.go.jp/english/research/ specimen/index.html). Conclusion As described above, the workshops with training courses provided the young scientists in the Southeast Asian member countries with great opportunities to learn about research on fish taxonomy and fish diversity. These workshops also resulted in establishing human networks among young scientists and fish taxonomy experts from the member countries, which will be very beneficial for developing fish taxonomy in the region. However, we received numerous comments and remarks from many participants of the workshops requesting additional training courses for fish taxonomy. They also stated that fish field guides published by the Fish Group were very useful in their work, and they require more field guides covering all areas of Southeast Asia. Our activities over the past 10 years clearly show that human resources, and particularly the training of young scientists are the keys to furthering research on fish taxonomy and diversity and that field guides are the most needed publications in the region. Continuous efforts on capacity building for future progress in the research and education on fishes are strongly needed in Southeast Asia. Biodiversity of fishes: Capacity building 127 Fig. 1. Group photos from the workshops. Top left, Phuket Marine Biological Center, Thailand, 2003; Top right, Bintan Island, Indonesia, 2005; Bottom left, University of the Philippines, Visayas, Philippines, 2006; Bottom right, Marine Science Research Center, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Port Dickson, Malaysia, 2007. Fig. 2. Sceneries from the workshops on fish taxonomy. Top left, Lectures at the Do Son Marine Station of Institute of Marine Environment and Resources, Vietnam; Top right, Collecting fishes with a beach seine, Phuket Island on the west coast of Thailand; Bottom left, Keiichi Matsuura talking to the young scientists about morphological characters of fishes at the Marine Science Research Center, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Port Dickson; Bottom right, Seishi Kimura talking about photographic techniques at the same Research Centre as the preceding. 128 K. M ATSUURA Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of the Fish Group who all made great contributions to the JSPS CMS Program. On behalf of the Fish Group I thank the JSPS and the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, for providing us with funds for fieldwork and publications. My thanks also go to the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo in Japan, the LIPI in Indonesia, the Phuket Marine Biological Center in Thailand, the University of the Philippines in Visayas, Philippines, the Universiti Kebangsaan and the Universiti Putra Malaysia in Malaysia, and the Institute for Marine Environment and Resources and the Research Institute for Marine Fisheries in Vietnam for their continuous help for the Fish Group. I thank Mark McGrouther of the Australian Museum for kindly reading the manuscript and offering helpful comments. References Kimura S, Matsuura K (eds.) (2003) Fishes of Bitung, Northern Tip of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ocean Res. Inst. Univ. Tokyo, Tokyo, vi+244 pp. Kimura S, Satapoomin U, Matsuura K (eds.) (2009) Fishes of Andaman Sea, West Coast of Southern Thailand. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Tokyo, vi+346 pp. Matsuura K, Kimura S (eds.) (2005) Fishes of Libong Island, West Coast of Southern Thailand. Ocean Res. Inst. Univ. Tokyo, Tokyo, vii+78 pp.