PENANG, 12 February 2014 - Academics in the country are called to strengthen links with agencies that are directly involved in the fishing and other marine life industry particularly in creating a repository of fish biodiversity in the country.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman said that the establishment of such a repository is very important for the benefit of researchers and students in the development of fisheries research.

He said that the repository will lead to the strengthening of the database to serve as a source of reference for local researchers in the field of fisheries.

“These are some long-term measures that can be adopted by our academia, engaging more smart partners such as the Department of Fisheries of Malaysia, the ministry and institutions of higher learning in the country,” he said.

He was speaking at a press conference after opening the Asian Fish Biodiversity Conference 2014 (AFBC 2014) here today. Also present were Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University Brunei Darussalam, Professor Hajjah Zohrah Sulaiman and Florida Museum of Natural History Curator, Professor Larry M Page.

AFBC is jointly organised by USM, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Department of Fisheries Malaysia, while also receiving full support from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the All Cypriniformes Species Inventory.

Omar also said that Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, is known for its rich diversity of marine fauna and is recognised as the second richest after the Amazon Basin in terms of species-richness and endemicity.

Yet, he said, this gift of rich diversity is endangered because of the non-sustainable rapid development and exploitation of natural resources.

“Thus we hope that conferences such as this would serve as a platform for the participants to find global solutions to address the threat to the fishing industry worldwide.

“This field is one of the most potential areas to explore and hope that our researchers can understand the fundamentals of the marine life ecosystem in their effort to conserve aquatic life successfully,” Omar said.

In the meantime, AFBC 2014 Chairman, Professor Dr. Siti Azizah Mohd Nor, said that AFBC successfully brought together about 180 marine experts and researchers from 25 countries inclusive of Asia, Africa, Europe, USA, and Australia.

She said that through AFBC, some selected papers will be published in two reputable journals, Zootaxa and Tropical Life Sciences Research.

This conference also witnessed the launching of the Asian Society of Ichthyology where Siti Azizah has been appointed as the Chairperson.

“We observe that the discussion in this conference is mainly focused on taxonomy or the introduction of the fish itself. This is important because taxonomy is fundamental to the conservation of fish.

“The issues discussed in this conference also cover some of the latest research in fishery management including scientific studies using molecular techniques that allows the identification of fish morphologically,” Siti Azizah added. - Translation: Yong Check Yoon/Text: Marziana Mohamed Alias​​/Photo: Mohd. Fairus Md. Isa