"OFFSHORE BOATS and their crews returned to work on September 1 at the end of a three-month suspension of activities off Myanmar’s entire coastline during the breeding season for fish and shrimp, but the outlook for the marine catch is grim. In previous years, suspensions were partial, and last year applied to 70 percent of vessels, but this year was the first time a ban applied to all offshore commercial fishing. The Department of Fisheries, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, imposed the total ban because of a drastic decline in the marine fishery catch. There has been a 90 percent decline in Myanmar’s marine fishery resources in the past 40 years, according to research conducted by the department in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization under the EAF-Nansen Programme, which is funded by the Norwegian government. U Myint Zin Htoo, the department’s deputy director-general, said further research would be conducted to determine what effect the three-month closure had on fish numbers. “We hope the closure will lead to a significant increase in stocks,” he told Frontier in late August, suggesting that the publication of findings could take some time. Frontier visited Tanintharyi Region’s Myeik District in July, in the middle of the closed season, to learn more about the decline in fishery stocks and illegal fishing off the coast – subjects that are often raised by the region’s MPs in the regional and national parliaments..."