Introduction

The marine fisheries sector of the Straits of Malacca has contributed towards the national Gross Domestic Products (GDP), employment, foreign exchange, and protein supply. These contributions need to be assessed and evaluated from the economic and social perspectives in order to ascertain the current status and the optimal utilization of the marine fisheries resources.

Objectives

The objectives of the fisheries socio-economic research group are as follows:

• To describe the marine fisheries industry structure for selected sites fronting the Straits of Malacca.

• To conduct conduct socio-bioeconomic valuation of the marine fisheries resources utilization for selected sites along the Straits of Malacca.

Activities

The Straits of Malacca is divided into three major zones namely, the northern zone comprising the States of Perlis, Kedah and Pulau Pinang; the central zone including the States of Perak and Selangor; and the southern zone including the States of Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and the west coast of the State of Johor. The data required for the socio-economic valuation of the marine fisheries resources utilization in these zones are from two main sources: (1) secondary data from published reports and statistics, and (2) primary data from interview surveys to be conducted at these sites to fill the gaps in secondary data.

For the bio-economic valuation of the fisheries resource utilization, the research group will examine the changing fish catch and fishing effort such as gear types used and the number of fishers. The optimal catch rate and effort level will be determined from the model developed. The natural resource accounting approach will be adopted to account for the changes in the resource values due to fishing activities. Alternative values of resource use such as recreational fishery and mariculture are to be estimated so that the overall economic value of the fisheries resources can be ascertained for the study sites.

The sociological assessment of the marine fisheries resource utilization meanwhile will focus on demographic issues such as characteristics of fisher households, fishers age structure and ethnic composition, experience, income from fishing and nonfishing activities, family size, and the institutions and regulations within the fishery at the study sites.

Expected Output

Among the expected output includes:

• Socio-economic maps of selected sites along the Straits of Malacca.

• Development of marine fisheries resource accounts.

Researcher