Muara Angke fishermen use skills to survive

Text and photos by P.J. Leo

JAKARTA (JP): The Muara Angke village on Jakarta's northern tip is home to traditional and semi-traditional fishermen.

Here, they can be seen making their boats, fish traps, hooking fishnets, auctioning and preserving fish.

On the village's western side fish is being salted for preservation and visitors are greeted by an offensive fishy odor.

A variety of fish, small and large, passes through the salted fish makers' hands. Time means nothing to these people. They work from dawn to dusk.

A whole family could be involved in this work, which is done at home on a stage-like device. The equipment, including five fish drying poles, is hired for Rp 26,000 (US$11) per month.

They sort the fish into three groups -- the best fish for auction, the second best to sell to be grilled and sent to retailers and the third best for preservation.

Fish which is unsold at auctions is also preserved.

Preserving involves small fish being soaked in salt water containers for 24 hours, while bigger fish are cut before being soaked in salt water. The fish are then dried on drying tables.

"We go through sheer agony during the drying period of the fish," a fisherman said. "It takes one day to dry the fish if the weather is good and two or three days if the weather is bad."

He said no part of the salted fish was wasted. The skin of rayfish, for example, is used to make bags and purses. The heads and skin of shrimps can be used for animal feed.

Salted fish makers seem to be leading a peaceful life, despite the obnoxious odor of drying fish everywhere. Small children help their parents with fish drying or collecting the salted fish. Music plays as they work, laugh and joke at Muara Angke.