ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses only the tropical reservoirs. Reservoirs are established for various purposes, with the stored water in the largest reservoirs being used for water supply, flood control, irrigation, hydro-electric power production and for some other purposes, amongst which fisheries are almost never given a priority. Reservoir fishery management and development activities have to be guided and eventually evaluated on the basis of their effect on the fishery resources and the fishery. Catch and effort data along with socio-economic statistics on the fishery, although recognized by fishery managers as fundamental for resource evaluation, have not always been collected in a consistent or timely manner. Reservoir fisheries usually face the problem of shortage of fishermen during the first years—the most biologically productive—of the reservoir. The number of physico-chemical parameters required for fish production prediction purposes is smaller than that usually collected for water quality assessment.
