Huge marine resources not yet tapped

JAKARTA (JP): As a maritime country, Indonesia is proud of its abundant marine resources.

Indonesia's territorial waters cover a 5.8 million square kilometer area. Some 3.1 million square km are under government control, with 2.7 million square km of exclusive fishing zone areas. The fish stock is estimated to reach about 6.7 million tons per year, comprising 4.4 million tons from Indonesia's territorial waters and 2.3 million from the exclusive zone areas.

Coral reefs are home to more than 263 kinds of fish and are ideal fishery grounds, as well as a scuba diver's paradise.

Other sources of ocean wealth include 12 sea grass fields which serve as food resources for various marine life, such as sea turtles. Seaweed is another promising asset. Today, more than 500 types of seaweed grow in Indonesia's coastal waters, but only 56 have been exploited.

As a result of these rich marine reserves, the country's fishing and marine industries have been rapidly developing.

Directorate General for Fishery recently revealed that in the period of between 1990 and l994 Indonesia's fishery production rose at an average of 6.7 percent annually, from 3.162 million tons to 4.018 million tons.

Export revenues from fishery products rose from only US$1.262 billion to $1.655 billion during the same period. However, the period saw a 44.98 percent annual increase in the import of fish products, from only 73,285 tons to 270,925 tons.

Abdullah said Indonesia should increase its fish production, because it is presently only able to process 2.5 million tons of fish annually or 40 percent of the territorial water's estimated 6.7 million tons of fish.

According to 1995 data, fish consumption reached 18.5 kilograms per year or 4.7 grams per day.

The fishery industry contributes about 22 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The largest contribution to GDP still comes from oil and gas (32 percent), industry (20.7 percent), transportation, communications and shipping (13.4 percent).

Despite these encouraging facts, huge problems still continue to cloud the country's fishing industry.

The rapid growth of the fishing industry has benefited only a small group of large-scale investors. The lives of traditional fishermen remain as gloomy as ever.

"People using traditional techniques will not survive," said Victor Manurung from the Agrosocial Economic Research Center. The waters are being emptied by industrial fishing.

The current fishery industry utilizes high-tech fishing equipment and effective management systems that are untouchable by simple and adventurous fishermen, who rely mostly on small boats, traditional nets and old-age fishing techniques.

How can these fishermen compete with larger-scale fishing boats such as trawlers and more sophisticated foreign fishing fleets?

Currently, about 1.5 million traditional fishermen operate 300,000 small boats along the beaches. These small boats cannot reach the 200 nautical miles of international waters which are now dominated by large domestic and foreign fleets. With such a limited capacity, local fishermen are unable to benefit from the country's fishing industry.

It is also saddening that only 1,800 Indonesian fishing boats operate in the rich exclusive zone areas. In addition, many are in poor condition. As a result, the rich marine resource areas are a heaven for foreign fishing fleets, which catch millions of tons of fish.

The operation of foreign fleets has created various problems, including overfishing and the violation of fishing permits. Ahmad Suryani, a marine scientist from the Indonesian Science Institute, said many of them have been over-exploiting marine resources. "For example, Japanese and Korean trawlers have often been caught dumping 90 percent of the unprofitable fish from their catch back into the sea," he said.

He warned that the next 10 years are going to be very painful, full of upheaval for those involved to the fishing industry.

In many places throughout the world, fish stocks have been damaged by pollution, the waste of unprofitable fish (bycatch), by destruction of wetlands that serve as nurseries and provide food and above all, by overfishing.

The coral reefs have been damaged by people using explosives and cyanide to catch fish, he said.

Traditional fishermen need empowerment to enable them to compete with foreign trawlers. At the same time, anyone who makes a living from the sea should pay more attention to the wise use of resources in an effort to preserve the environment. (raw)