Digital monitoring of fish-trade for valuing bycatch and characterizing data-poor fisheries in Tanintharyi, Myanmar

Safeguarding the sustainability of marine fisheries is imperative to food security at both local and global scales. This is a significant issue in countries where the fisheries sector plays a vital role in the economy. In Myanmar, the fisheries sector contributes up to 50 % of the animal protein for human consumption in addition to providing a livelihood for large numbers of fishers in coastal communities. However, managers in Myanmar have inadequate data for regulating coastal fisheries. To help address these data deficiencies, we implemented a digital catch data collection system to quantify the diversity and volume of catches coming from the inshore fisheries of southern Myanmar. Our data from the Tanintharyi region showed a high diversity catch (49 fish families), with commercial transactions greatly dependent on a few key families (e.g., Scombridae, Carangidae) for local and regional trading. We also identified the importance of tonguesoles (Cynoglossidae), frequently caught as bycatch, as an essential contribution to the local food supply. Tonguesoles are unreported and unregulated but are of high socio-economic importance, providing a source of affordable, high-quality protein and income to coastal communities. Here we use Cynoglossidae as an example of a single fish family that can be used to make general management recommendations for a poorly understood but highly diverse inshore fishery in Myanmar. An ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) is suggested for the tonguesole and related mixed-fisheries to ensuring long-term sustainability of fisheries, food security, biodiversity, other ecosystem services, and safeguard coastal livelihoods across the large coastal area of Myanmar.