Indonesia, Japan hatch tuna growth plan
Indonesia, Japan hatch tuna growth plan
Achmad Sukarsono, Reuters, Bali
The Japanese who eat tuna and the Indonesians on the island of
Bali who catch it are combining forces to ensure the fish stays
on Tokyo's tables -- and keeps income flowing to the fishermen.
Japan is the major buyer of tuna from Indonesia, and the two
have joined hands to set up Southeast Asia's largest tuna
hatchery center on the north coast of Bali, an island better
known as a sun and sand holiday destination.
"Japanese like tuna so much," said Akio Nakazawa, the chief
expert at the Indonesia Japan Tuna Propagation Research Project
that opened last year in the sleepy fishing village of Gondol.
"So, the Japanese government now wants to work together and
establish tuna fisheries. I think to maintain the tuna catch at
this level or more is very important," he said, after showing how
mother tunas were acclimatized in round blue-painted pools.
The project is part of a long-established government marine
research center called the Gondol Research Institute for
Mariculture that has successfully farmed groupers.
Japan's Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation has pledged to
invest US$2.5 million in the center and assigned scientists to
join Indonesian researchers in studying the hatching behavior of
yellowfin tuna.
They now have around 60 yellowfins in their pools. More than
half of them, each weighing around five to 10 kilograms, are in a
six-meter deep, 18-meter diameter main pool where eggs are
expected to be collected in August.
Institute head Adi Hanafi said the center is concentrating on
the hatching process before rushing into tuna farming.
Indonesia produces 200,000 tons of tuna every year worth
around $400 million, which includes yellowfin much favored for
Japanese sashimi. But it's getting harder to maintain those
numbers.
The tuna hatchery is not a quick fix. "Indeed, this will take
time. What's important now is pushing for it. If this is
successful, the contribution can be felt nationwide," said
Hanafi.
Over on the other side of the island, fishermen on Bali's
southern coast know time is against them.
Thirty years ago, tuna-seeking vessels from pioneering state-
owned Samodra Besar Fishing Co had the Indonesian waters to
themselves and every 100 lines they threw would hook an average
of two huge 30-kilogram tunas.
Now, getting just one with the same number of lines is
considered a plus for the company, which has a key base at the
edge of Bali's port of Benoa, from where 20 Samodra boats roam
the southern Indonesian sea.
"It's clear out there that we are getting less and less from
year to year," Soepriyono, Samodra's Benoa branch head, said in
his office with windows overlooking the bright blue ocean.
A ship that spread 1,000 lines per day could hook at least 15
tuna in the 1970s and 1980s, when fishermen like himself felt
"the ocean was so vast", he said.
"Now, for every 100 lines, we only have a chance to get half a
fish," the bespectacled Soepriyono said as he waited for Japanese
customers to make their selections from his crews' catch of the
day.
Such reports are bad news for Indonesia as the seas around the
tiny island of Bali alone contribute 17,000 tons of yellowfin and
bigeye tuna to the total for the world's largest archipelago.
Environmentalists blame overfishing for greater difficulty in
finding the fish, and the phenomenon is alarming in Indonesia,
which has opened its waters to other countries to fish.
The fast-swimming southern bluefin tuna, found between
Indonesia and Australia, is already an endangered species and a
multinational panel oversees its conservation and limited
catches.
Environmental pressure group Greenpeace urges a fishing
moratorium to ensure the growth of the entire tuna population and
its escape from extinction.
Such calls are not well received by those making their living
from fishing in Bali, even as they concede that with more than
600 fishing vessels roaming the waters near Benoa alone, the
competition seems ever greater and the catch ever smaller.
"Whenever there's fish, everyone races to the area, one on top
of the other. Suddenly, our ocean seems so crowded and whenever
you move you stumble upon another boat," said Samodra's
Soepriyono, who likes to call himself a fisherman.
"But on whether they are on the brink of extinction or not,
nobody can offer a clear explanation. So, why should we fear it?"
Staff in Gondol also are uncertain about the real danger of
extinction for Indonesia's yellowfin or bigeye.
But Indonesian researcher John Hutapea said the project was
about avoiding a repeat of the bluefin crisis.
"At least we're now anticipating it so that we won't only
start to learn about it when it's nearing extinction. We're
indeed stealing a start," he said, after leading staffers in
feeding vitamin-filled squid and dusky jacks to the tuna in the
main pool.