Both the natural and man-made inland water resources in Southeast Asia available fo r fish eries are extensive. The reservoir area alone amounts to 5.56S x 10s ha. The inland fishery of Southeast Asia accounts fo r nearly S7% of the total inland fish production of the world and has steadily increased over the last decade. This paper considers those countries listed under South and East Asia by the Food and Agriculture Organization fishery sta tistics as well as mainland China. Reservoir fish eries in Asia is rela tively new. Reservoir fish eries in China is dependent strongly on stocking and recapture tohereas, in the rest of Asia, i t is dominated by species capable of sustaining or supplmenting the stock through natural recruitment. H eld s between reservoirs vary greatly and the evidence indicates that yield is not necessarily determined by reservoir morphometry. Possible future developments of reservoir fish eries in the region are highlighted.
In most of South Asia, reservoirs have been associated with rice cultivation. As such, reservoirs have been important both culturally and socially. The impact of rice cultivation and reservoirs on different cultures varies and is superficially dependent on the terrain, etc. For example, those civilizations that developed on floodplains are not associated with an irrigational tradition. Possibly the greatest cultural impact of reservoirs is evident in Sri Lanka (Fernando and De Silva 1984; De Silva 1983, 1988a). It should also be pointed out that small reservoirs such as the temple ponds have been associated with religion.
In most Asian countries, even though reservoirs are old, the development of reservoir fisheries occurred only relatively recently. This is documented in the cases of Sri Lanka (Fernando and Indrasena 1969; De Silva 1988a) and China (Lu 1986). The potential of the reservoir fishery in Southeast Asia (Fernando 1980), management aspects of lacustrine fisheries in the tropics (Oglesby 1985), and the ecological impact of tropical, man-made lakes (Petr 1978), as well as other aspects, have been dealt with from different viewpoints over the last decade. Apart from what is cited above there has been an increasing emphasis on studies on reservoir fisheries and the biology of constituent species in Southeast Asia over the last decade. This trend is undestandable in view of the near saturation levels reached by Southeast Asian countries in the exploitation of the available coastal resources (Thia-Eng 1986) and the increasing number of
20
reservoirs. The latter can be utilized as an important, major source of animal protein with a minimal capital input when compared with other fisheries sectors. As such, the inland fisheries in the region, of which a major constituent is the reservoir fishery, is becoming increasingly important not only from the point of view of fish production but also from a sociological aspect, as a means of providing employment to a sizeable section of the population (Thai-Eng 1986).
This paper briefly evaluates the present status of the reservoir fishery in relation to the inland fishery of South and East Asia (FAO 1983) as well as mainland China and steps for optimizing yield from the reservoirs are highlighted. In this evaluation, however, intensive aquaculture in reservoirs is not considered.