The 1990's are challenging times for all involved in the research and management of Vietnamese fisheries. The realization that our fish resources are limited and particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation has come too late to prevent serious depletion of a number of our major stocks. Modern technological advances, particularly in electronics, have resulted in tremendous improvements in fishing gear and in the effective fishing power of most commercial vessels. These improvements, together with the ever increasing skill of commercial fishermen and continuous accumulation of knowledge of behavioural patterns of target species, have left few of our major commercial fish resources unaffected. There has also been continuous escalation in recreational fishing effort resulting from increased human population, increased affluence and leisure time and rapidly improving efficiency of recreational anglers. The greater human population densities in Viet Nam have resulted in fish resources being subjected to fishing pressure. Even though Vietnamese fisheries were thought to be suffering from excessive fishing effort for a number of years, it is only in the last few years that the magnitude of the declines in key species such as: orders (Anguilliformes), (Ophiocephaliformes) and (Synbranchiormes)

Although management measures are essential for the long-term conservation of fisheries resources, and to ensure optimum sustainable yields, they are inevitably unpopular with those who have previously enjoyed unrestricted access to the resource. In order to provide fisheries managers with the basic research findings required for defining goals such as optimum sustainable yield, total allowable catch and maximum yield per recruit, research programme have, by necessity, evolved from predominantly natural history and descriptive biology to more mathematically oriented task of resource assessment and population dynamics.

The realization that many resources have already declined past the point of optimum sustainability has necessitated assessment of methods for rehabilitation of depleted stocks and restoration of damaged habitats. Measures such as stocking of presently unproductive habitats, seeding areas with selected, high value species and construction of productive artificial habitats are receiving increasing priority. Selected farms of aquaculture are being vigorously promoted to produce marketable quantities of new products to supplement declining production from capture fisheries.

• There are 260 drift fish species on epipelagic water (13% total species). Inshore drift fish is small size, low longevity, high reproduction such as herring, Chinese herring, anchovy, etc. Offshore drift fish is large size, such as mackerel, flying fish.

• There are approximately 930 species in mid and near-ground water (54% total species).

• There are 502 species in ground water (24% total species). Inshore ground fish includes chinaman fish, goat-fish, golden thread, gowler. Deep-sea ground fish is cobbler, piper, etc.

• There 340 coral-fish species living in coral areas (16.6% total species). It is small size, colourful, such as angelfish, common paradise-fish, globe-fish, box fish.