Productivity and coastal fisheries biomass yields of the northeast coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem

Abstract

This paper describes the current marine fisheries situation in the northeast sector of the Bay of Bengal, ninety percent of which corresponds to Myanmar's EEZ and ten percent to Bangladesh. With the exception of the research carried out by the fisheries research vessel Fridtjof Nansen, the Myanmar sector is largely data deficient due to political reasons. With the onset of a move towards democracy in 2012 and elections in 2015, fisheries research by the Myanmar Department of Fisheries (DoF) and development partners, including the Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF) under the Myanmar Fisheries Partnership (MFP), is starting to demonstrate a serious state of decline in the marine fisheries sector. The objectives of this study are to outline the importance of marine fisheries in Myanmar, describe the complexities and challenges of improving management and to highlight ongoing work linked to the forthcoming implementation of an eight-country Strategic Action Program (SAP) designed to mitigate the problems identified during the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) 2009–2012