News focus: rescuing Indonesia`s coral reefs from blast fishing

Antara News, by Rahmad Nasution, Friday, April 2, 2010 14:36 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Endowed by nature with more than 50,000 square kilometers of coral reefs, Indonesia has been listed by the United Nations as s nation with the largest coral reef resources in the world, along with Australia and the Philippines.

According to the United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC)`s World Atlas of Coral Reefs (2001), Indonesia had 51,020 square kilometers of coral reefs or 17.95 percent of the world`s coral reefs.

This archipelagic nation topped the list , followed by Australia with 48,460 square kilometers, the Philippines (25,060), France (14,280), Papua New Guinea (13,840), Fiji (10,020), Maldives (8,920), Saudi Arabia (6,660), Marshall Islands (6,110) and India (5,790).

The benefits that Indonesia can get from its coral reef biodiversity are obvious because coral reefs are evidently the sources of food and income for a lot of people through such activities as fisheries and tourism and also sources of raw materials for medicines.

But the UNEC-WCMC has warned that human activities, such as blast fishing, are seriously degrading coral reefs in various parts of the world, including in Indonesia.

The UN body`s warning is based on factual information collected over the years. Blast fishing itself has been practiced in Indonesia since World War II.

C.Pet-Soede, H.S.J. Cesar and J.S.Pet argued in their research report (1999) that blast fishing was chosen by certain local fishermen in Indonesia because it was "an easy and profitable way to catch whole schools of reef fish".

While it was a pactical and profitable for fishermen to earn their living, blast fishing, they said, was threatening the coral reef ecosystem and would eventually spell the end of coral reef fisheries.

Since the publication of C.Pet-Soede, H.S.J. Cesar and J.S.Pet`s report on their economic analysis of blast fishing in Indonesian coral reef waters in 1999 and the UNEP-WCMC`s World Atlas of Coral Reef in 2001, blast fishing has remained a frequent practice in Indonesia.

Although the government has officially banned it, the destructive fishing method, for example, continues to be used by certain fishermen on Enggano Island, Bengkulu Province, and in Kaduara Barat village in Pamekasan district , Madura Island, East Java.

Chief of Bengkulu`s naval base, Lt.Col.Sukrisno, had recently warned local fishermen of the danger of blast fishing for the preservation of coral reefs` biodiversity, and the legal sanctions they were risking.

Therefore, instead of using the home-made explosives, he urged them to use fishing nets as recommneded by Bengkulu province`s fishery and marine authorities.

Cases where fishermen are penalized for having practiced blast fishing happen repeatedly. On March 12, 2010, three fishermen in the East Java island of Madura, for example, were detained for possessing explosives.

The local police caught the fishermen of Candi hamlet, Polagan village, Galis sub-district, Pamekasan district red handed with the evidence minutes before they were about to go fishing.

Chief of Pamekasan police precinct Adjunct Senior Commissioner Mas Gunarso said his men seized 15 packs of home-made explosives from that the suspects. These law violators were threatened with severe sentence.

The direct impacts of this blast fishing has even been felt by the fishermen in the East Java island of Madura.

Basudin, traditional fisherman of Kaduara Barat village, Larangan sub-district, Pamekasan regency, said the fish catches of his and his fellows had badly been affected over the past years.

He suspected that the blast fishing might have contributed to the shortages of marine resources in the Madura sea because during the rainy season, certain local fishermen intensively used home-made explosives in fishing.

Every time they went fishing, they spent Rp100,000 - Rp150,000 in operational costs but they only got five kilograms of tiny sea fish. The selling price of this catch was no more than Rp100,000 in the local fish market, Basudin said.

In his opinion, the blast fishing activities had indeed destroyed all kinds of fishes, including the tiny and baby ones. The impacts of this destructive habit were not only felt by the doers but also caused the fish-net users like him to suffer from the poor catch. "But, we cannot stop them because we are all fellow fishermen," he said.

Besides degrading the marine resources, their destructive way of fishing had also destroyed coral reefs of the islands of Kramat and Pandan, he said.

Looking at the fishing condition in Madura Island waters, local authorities have periodically been holding public awareness campaigns and assisting the local fishermen with needed fishing tools.

For the fishing net users, they had once been given water-resistant lamps, Head of Pamekasan regency`s marine and fishery office Nurul Widiastuti, said.

Providing them with the government`s sponsored water-resistant lamps was part of her office`s efforts to promote a friendly fishing and care for safety of the local fishermen themselves, she said.

Apart from what the state apparatuses, like Sukrisno and Nurul Widiastuti, have done, the government need also protect the traditional fishermen from all sorts of unfair fishing policies and activities, such as letting them freely compete with trawlers on open sea.

The blast fishing may also be fought by introducing the fishermen to such alternative skills as breeding saltwater fish and running aquaculture.

With these people-empowered and oriented approaches, more fishermen can be persuaded to make a living by getting rid of any destructive way of fishing.