Snails, jellyfish a fine catch for Gunungkidul fisherfolk

Snails, jellyfish a fine catch for Gunungkidul fisherfolk

Singgir Kartana, Contributor/Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta

After dusk, fisherman Sarimun is still busy removing sea snails and jellyfish from his net and putting them in two separate containers.

Sarimun, a resident of Wonosobo village in the coastal area of Drini in Gunung Kidul, would usually be at home with his family by this time, except for the fact that a month ago he started a new line of work, catching sea snails and jellyfish.

"Since some traders from Gombong and Cilacap (both in Central Java) came here six months ago, the fishermen at Drini Beach, Baron Beach, Krakal Beach, and Kukup Beach have been making extra money by catching snails and jellyfish. They buy them for sale abroad," Sarimun explained.

Sarimun said that he alone could catch between 15 kilograms and 20 kilograms of snails, which he sold to a collector who then sold them to a trader.

In fact, there are some 500 fishermen in the region who are doing the same as Sarimun. Ever since they discovered that snails and jellyfish were profitable commodities, they have been competing with each other to catch as many snails and jellyfish as possible during their spare time.

The sea snails, which are known locally as Keong Macan, are exported to Taiwan, while the jellyfish are sent to Singapore. The effort to export the two commodities, according to Sarimun, had actually started in 2000. However, it was only since earlier this year that it came to pass thanks to the arrival of the snail and jellyfish buyers from Gombong and Cilacap.

The fishermen usually sell the snails for Rp 4,000 per kilogram to collectors. After being cleaned and made ready for export, the collectors sell them for Rp 7,500 per kilogram to businessmen.

"We are not yet capable of exporting them by ourselves. We do not know the procedures and do not have enough start-up capital. So, we let the exporters from Gombong and Cilacap do this for us," Mandung, an elder fisherman at Drini Beach, who is also a collector, said.

Working as a collector is a new line of work for dozens of locals in the region. Mandung, Suraji, Tulut, and Sapon are some of the large-scale collectors.

According to Mandung, when business is good, Gunungkidul can produce up to 10 tons of sea snails per day. However, as catching the snails and jellyfish is only done as a side job, with the main work still being catching fish, they could only collect about 150 kilograms of snails per day during the fishing high season.

"Frankly speaking, catching snails and jellyfish is much more profitable than catching fish. However, as most of the men here still see themselves primarily as fishermen, they only consider catching snails and jellyfish to be a side job," said Mandung, who has been a fisherman since 1965.

Ngatiyo, 43, of the Mina Samodra fishermen's cooperative at Baron Beach, said that the local fishermen were initially interested in catching snails and jellyfish during those times when they found it difficult to catch fish, particularly during the windy seasons and at high tide. During August and December, fish are usually scarce, and sometimes they can only land about 10 kilograms. Snails, however, are plentiful at these times.

"Before we discovered that snails were also profitable, we just left them where they were. We would sometimes collect some of them for our own consumption," said Ngatiyo, adding that the same applied in the case of the jellyfish.

Now, however, Drini and Baron Beaches have become two of the country's main suppliers of jellyfish for export to Singapore. Winarno, a fisherman from Drini, said that Drini Beach alone could produce at least two tons of jellyfish a day.

Jellyfish, he said, could be easily caught during the afternoon and evening. But, to catch them required additional courage as the jellyfish lived far offshore and were most plentiful at high tide.

A kilogram of jellyfish is usually sold for Rp 600 to the collectors. However, if it has already been cleaned, it can fetch up to Rp 1,200 per kilogram.

"It's not difficult for us to sell the jellyfish as it is the buyers who come to us and not the other way around," Winarno said.

The main constraints facing the fishermen in catching both sea snails and jellyfish, according to Winarno, are the weather and the simple equipment they have at their disposal.

It seems that efforts need to be made to intensify the exploitation of the two commodities in order to improve the incomes of local fishermen.

One thing is for sure, however, whatever efforts are made, they must not damage the overall ecosystem. If care is taken, not just the fishermen's incomes will be improved, but the environment will also be preserved. In addition, local government revenue will receive a boost.