Fishers call for strong action to prevent bycatching

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Fri, 06/18/2010 10:29 AM

Fishers from local communities and private companies in the Coral Triangle region have called for a stronger partnership and collaborative measures to prevent the unintended capture of animals in commercial fishing gear.

A three-day forum, which closed here Thursday, discussed ways to prevent the phenomenon, which in the industry is known as “bycatching”. The forum heard that millions of marine animals were inadvertently killed every year by the fisheries industry in the Coral Triangle.

Bycatching is a major cause of death of endangered species, such as turtles, sharks, marine mammals, as well as thousands of tons of fish species that are not eaten that get entangled in fishing gear each year, the forum heard.

“Such ineffective fishing practices are undoubtedly depleting our highly valuable marine species on which millions of people depend for food and income,” said Keith Symington, bycatch strategy leader of the coral triangle program at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“This forum has created a collaborative platform for fishers to start working closely together to solve bycatching and secure a more sustainable and equitable future for the fishing industry in this region,” he said.

The forum was jointly held by the WWF, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC).

Some 100 participants at the forum collectively agreed on a set of recommendations, including mainstreaming bycatching regulations in regional legislation and implementing them into national policies, as well as providing incentives to fishermen to turn to more environmentally friendly catching methods.

Other recommendations included conducting more research and studies to inform decisions on policy.

The forum also agreed to establish partnerships with academic institutions and fisheries schools to raise awareness about bycatching among new fishermen.

“It is urgent for fishers in this region to transform their practices into more eco-friendly ones and cooperate with key players across the entire supply-chain to ensure the health of ocean resources and the future of their business as well,” Symington said.

Narmoko Prasmadji, the ministry’s representative and the executive secretary of the national coordination committee of Coral Triangle Initiative Indonesia, said the ministry would support a plan of action arrived at during the meeting in line with its own policy of reducing bycatching.

“The bycatching issue should be included in the mainstream of the national fisheries policy and should be well implemented and legally enforced,” he said.

The SEAFDEC noted that many fishing operations were guilty of bycatching, with many simply throwing unwanted dead catches back into the sea.

Some shrimp trawling operations can discard up to 90 percent of their catches, while some fishing

operations kill seabirds, turtles and dolphins, sometimes in large numbers.

The Ministry’s Center for Analysis and International Cooperation estimated that 15 percent of every 5-ton catch was bycatch, while the FAO estimated commercial fishing wasted at least 27 tons of marine resources every year due to indiscriminate fishing.

Since 2006, WWF Indonesia and the ministry have initiated a bycatch mitigation program that requires the use of circle hooks for long-line tuna fishing in harbors in Benoa in Bali and Bitung in North Sulawesi.