Calang residents enjoy shrimp harvest

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Aceh Jaya

Devastated by the tsunami, residents living on the Aceh coast in the district of Calang, Aceh Jaya regency have started to breathe more easily. After losing most of their belongings in the disaster, in no time, they will be standing on their feet again.

Seven months after the tidal waves swept the region, the residents have been blessed with a good harvest of shrimp and crabs which they collected from their former ponds at night time.

Unlike the shrimps they used to harvest, the shrimps are smaller but abundant. In a single night, the residents could catch up to 200 kilograms of shrimp that they sold at Rp 20,000 per kilogram.

"The shrimp will be frozen and sent to Banda Aceh," said Awi, 30, a shrimp buyer in Rigaih harbor, Calang.

Since land transportation to Calang is still difficult -- it takes nine hours by a four-wheel drive vehicle to reach the area now from Banda Aceh compared to three hours previously -- the shrimp and crabs are transported to Banda Aceh by fishing boat in about an eight-hour journey.

According to a resident, Iskandar, 30, the shrimp and crabs are a blessing for Calang residents who were the worst hit during the massive disaster.

Aceh Jaya regency reportedly lost 24 percent of its residents in its six districts -- Jaya, Sampoinit, Calang, Panga, Krueng Sabe and Teunom -- in the tsunami. Most of the regency's residents were fishermen and farmers who owned fish and shrimp ponds.

He said the residents bought equipments to catch the shrimp and crabs from the money they raised by taking part in the cash- for-work program organized by foreign aid groups. "We used the money as an investment," he told the Post.

Now, Iskandar sells around 50 kilograms of shrimp every day, raising decent money for his surviving family.

Another Calang resident, 50-year-old Umar, claimed he already bought a motorcycle from the money he raised from selling shrimp.

"This is a blessing from Allah," Iskandar said.

Although many of the ponds were damaged in the disaster, the residents still harvested fish, shrimp and crabs for their own use at night, while in the day, many of them still took part in cash-for-work program.