Fishing practices have been considered as the main reason for depletion of the marine living resources in general and the coral dwelling species in particular. Unfortunately, there were very few published data available about the status exploitation and trade that may effectively assist the policy makers and managers to cut down the degradation rate of the coral reefs along the country. This proposed project aims to: (1) To assess the exploitation intensity targets on the keystone reef animals, (2) To explore the market chain for the trading of the endangered rare coral reef animals, (3) To enhance the public awareness about the mitigation of the exploitation forces on the coral dwelling species. In order to come up with above objectives, several activities will be organized:
1. A field survey collecting the information about the gear types, fishing ground of the several keystone reef animals such as hard coral, live reef food fish (seahorse, grouper) and giant clam, marine aquarium species will be carried out at Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan provinces. The method approaches will be fishery questionnaire delivery at the selected fishing villages and review the database reserved at the local offices.
2. Estimation of the over fishing level bases on the market information (body size, maturity level) and catch per unit effort (CPUE) data stored in the local fishery management units.
3. Application of the economic matrix aspects to determine the supply – demand cycle for the endangered reef animals and predict for the coming years.
4. Designation of the leaflet sets and posters to be used in the public awareness programs such as material references for school teacher in the environmental subject.
