7. Issues and Challenges in Aquatic Invasive Alien Species - Seafdec

8. Strategies
In order to provide a much-needed, truly effective
national monitoring and early-warning system,
researches, studies, surveys and monitoring should
be ‘mainstreamed’ into the routine environmental and
management activities of all fisheries projects,
marine protected areas, ports, harbours and marinas.
They should be carried out as ongoing, long-term
monitoring programs and linked into a global IAS
information system.
Management strategies of fisheries IAS need to
cover three main issues namely prevention;
containment and eradication; and control. The
prevention of aquatic AS introduction is the first
priority in managing them because containment,
eradication and control are very difficult, very costly
and most unlikely effective. When prevention fails,
management options will depend on how widely the
aquatic AS has spread. If the area involved is small,
containment and eradication of the aquatic AS are
still possible and practical. In order to curb and
minimize the introduction and also to enhance
preventive mitigation of the aquatic AS, programs
as follows have been proposed by DoFM for the
Conservation and Sustainable Use of Fishery
Resource Biological Diversity of Malaysia to be
implemented under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-
2010):
• Conservation of Inland Fishery Resources
• Enhancement of Breeding and Culture
Technologies
• Fisheries Biotechnology and Fish Health
Research
• Research on Aquarium Fish and Aquatic Plants
• Fish Feed Development
The implementation of the plan will be carried out
until 2015.
Strategy 1:
Strengthen Biological and Socio-economic Information of Aquatic IAS
No. Key Actions Key Performance Index (KPI)
Issue No 1: Shortage and inaccessibility of scientific information on basic biology and ecological
impacts of aquatic IAS
1. Establish systematic studies for biological
resource inventories and update information on
aquatic IAS
2. Undertake studies on ecological impacts of
aquatic IAS
• 1 database for aquatic AS
• Update information on new introduction of
aquatic AS per year
• Update information on aquatic IAS per year
• Document on Impact Risk Assessment of
newly introduced species
Issue No 2: Insufficient information on socio-economic status of fish farmers, aquarium fish
traders and fishers
1. Undertake gathering and compilation of
information on socio-economic of fish farmers,
aquarium fish traders and fisher.
• 1 database on fish farmers, aquarium fish
traders and fishers
• Update information on new players every
year
Issue No. 3: Lack of information sharing among locals and foreign experts
1. Strengthen information sharing among locals
and foreign experts by incorporating aquatic IAS
considerations, including monitoring,
reporting and notification of threats into regional
agreements.
2. Establish information on aquatic IAS status and
trends available through the Clearing House
Mechanism (CHM) and other regional
information systems.
• Regional meeting every three years
• Local seminar/ workshop every two years
• Establish NaFISH as CHM on aquatic IAS
21