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.