Fisheries Resources under Stress: The Malaysian Experience

Abstract

"Numerous evidences have shown that the fishery resources in the West Coast of Peninsula Malaysia have been biologically and economically overexploited since the early seventies, as indicated by (1) falls in catch per unit effort, (2) increases in trash fish composition as a percentage of total catch, and (3) the decline in size of commercial fish caught. The advent of technology, the development of more modern fishing fleet in purse seiners and trawlers, and the change in the fishing policy towards production oriented development have worsened the resource stocks in the area in the subsequent decades.

"This paper will attempt to trace the overall fishery development and its impact of overfishing such as fishing sleet expansion for the periods in the seventies and eighties are used to demonstrate to relieve the pressure on the already over-exploited resources."