Participating Countries:

ICLARM staff who participated in the training course were: Training Coordinator Dr. JM Vakily, Senior Research Scientist Dr. R Froese, Software Developer and Database Scientist Dr. MLD Palomares, Principal Science Adviser Dr. D Pauly, Research Assistants Ms. C Binohlan and Ms. E. Capuli, and FishBase Webmaster Mr. J Falcon.

Other resource persons included Dr. Jack Randall, FishBase collaborator on taxonomy and fish pictures; Mr. Simon Mickleburgh from Fauna and Flora International, who specializes in the creation of action plans; Ms. Amie Brautigam, Program Officer with the Species Survival Commission; and Ms. Sara Fowler, co-chair of the Sharks Specialists group.

The course included the following modules:

• traditional methods and concepts in fisheries management;
• eco-system modeling; biodiversity and its assessment;
• library research and scientific writing;
• Internet connectivity and communication;
• regional concerns in respect to species biodiversity and conservation measures.

As part of the training course computer hardware and software were provided for one of the participating institutions in each country in order to ensure that the new concepts and approaches presented during the course could be used to start broadening the knowledge base in the respective country.

The participants expressed their great satisfaction with the course. They considered the topics presented during the course as in general relevant to the problems fisheries face in their respective home countries and agreed to the perceived need of new approaches to resource management. These results are a strong indicator that the course fulfilled its role of making participants aware of the global crisis fisheries are beset with, and that there is a need for changes in how we approach the management of our aquatic resources. This assessment is also underlined by the many positive comments stated by the participants. Last, but not least, participation in the course was apparently enjoyed, and there was a strong demand for some sort of follow-up measure, e.g. in form of a course on modeling ecosystems with the assistance of the ECOPATH project. (see the project's home page for more information: www.cgiar.org/iclarm/ecopath).

Participants returned home with the task to thoroughly search the archives of their national institutions for yet unpublished material on the biology, ecology, and use of their fish resources. This is expected to lead to a number of publications by national fishery scientists, thus making such information available to the scientific community both at home and at large through its inclusion in FishBase.

  List of participants at the training course

(Click any name to obtain more detailed information about the participant)

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