In Asia, the fisheries sector is important in terms of food security, livelihoods and foreign exchange earnings. However, as in many parts of the world, there are signs that capture fisheries are fully exploited or overfished. Management of fisheries in the region is often hampered by lack of information on the status of fisheries in terms of biological, social, economic, policy and governance aspects. This regional project documents an alarming decline on coastal fishery resources, based on historic research surveys in South and Southeast Asia. Socio-economic analyses and policy reviews highlight the importance of the fisheries sector but also the challenges facing it. Potential interventions to improve fisheries management in the countries are outlined and defined with environmental, socioeconomic and institutional objectives.

The Fifth International Rotifer Symposium was organized by Dr. Claudia Ricci and held in the northern Italian town of Gargnano (Brescia) from September 12-17, 1988. Through the generosity of the Rector of Milano University, a beautiful villa on the shores of Lake Garda was made available to the 83 people from 20 countries who attended the symposium. Ten of these rotifer workers had attended the four previous meetings. Such symposia serve three major functions, the results of which will be apparent in the papers contained in this volume. First, because of the heterogeneity of interests and absence of concurrent sessions, the attendees are exposed to an unusually large variety of research problems, approaches and modes of interpretation. Bridges are thus built between one's own investigations and developments in the field as a whole. Second, the extensive informal interactions that occur outside of the meeting room during coffee breaks, dinners and excursions provide remarkable opportunities for research planning and sharing of results of work in progress. Third, the acquaintances established at these meetings have facilitated interactions during the three-year intervals between symposia. The result has been that visits between laboratories, acquisition of research materials from distant sources and coordination of related investi gations have all been greatly enhanced. A description of the week's events may serve to convey the ambience of the meeting.