Download Biodiversity of fishes: Capacity building in Project-3 Chapter 13 Keiichi Matsuura

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.