It’s a long, long way from an Indonesian reef to a
dentist’s office in Toronto. Next time you watch a tropical
fish lazily circling its tank while waiting for your root
canal, give a thought to how it got there.
The life of a reef fish is a simple one. The thinking box
of even quite a large fish is rather small, so it will not
be agonizing over world affairs, its relationships or its
cholesterol levels. Days are spent loitering around the reef,
grazing on lower life forms and avoiding predators. It enjoys
the occasional uncommitted amorous interlude with another
of its kind. Its borderless world is full of colour and sounds
and interesting flavours. Then one day a diver appears from
above, squirts a solution of cyanide in its face and it wakes
up inside a plastic bag. If it survives capture and the stress
of subsequent journeys, it spends the rest of its life in
a glass box in a dentist’s office, eating synthetic
fish-flavoured flakes when someone remembers to feed it.
Indonesia has been a major exporter of reef fish for over
30 years. Control of the trade has been minimal, resulting
in the disappearance of some species from the more easily
accessible collecting sites near shore. The Balinese fishers
who collect aquarium fish come from poor, isolated communities
with no real alternatives for generating income. About 500
collectors depend on the ornamental fish industry to support
their families. Once a local resource is depleted, collectors
rove in search of fish. Taking their small boats to Lombok,
Sumbawa, Flores and Sulawesi, collectors from the north coast
of Bali will stay away up to three weeks on each collecting
trip.
The trade is hard on the collectors who risk their lives for
a meager income, and hard on the fish which can suffer mortality
rates of more than 50% during capture and the stress of handling
and transport. But placing a ban on reef fishing is not the
answer. There is little incentive to captive breed, as wild-caught
fish are still so cheap in comparison. As long as people are
hungry and there’s a market for their wares, the communities
will continue to sell the fish at ridiculously low prices,
even after they have been trained in ‘best practices’.
The challenge is to make it sustainable for both collectors
and marine species through community-based resource management
programs, and adoption of fairer trade mechanisms.
The Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), an international organization
based in Hawaii, works with collectors and exporters in Indonesia
to help create a sustainable and responsible industry. Marine
Biologist Gayatri Lilley, the MAC Indonesia Coordinator, has
created programs with the collectors of North Bali since 2003.
Her husband Ron provides technical support.
The Lilleys presented the concept of the MAC program to the
fish collecting community in Les and Tembok, Tejakula, in
North Bali in 2004. The fishermen, who had seen their only
resource dwindle in a single generation, quickly agreed to
take part in a community-based resource management program.
Establishing the collection area was a formidable task, including
researching traditional resource rights and boundaries, mapping
the area, seeking consensus on management rules and developing
a catch recording system. The program received support from
the local and central government and the resorts along the
beach, which saw the advantage of maintaining the natural
resources that attract tourism.
The Lilleys originally approached a village of 98 fishermen
collecting along two kilometres of reef. But news about the
program quickly spread along the coast, and other fishermen
and local government officials approached MAC asking to be
involved. Today the program includes about 210 collectors
from the villages of Tembok, Les, Banyuasri, Penyabangan,
Sumberkiwa and Pejarakan. These communities have all selected
certain areas for protection and are in the process of developing
No-Take Zones where the fish can breed. The results are already
impressive. “Fish stocks come back in about two years,
and collectors report the return of species they have not
seen for a long time,” Gayatri points out.
The traditional technique of collecting aquarium fish hasn’t
changed in 30 years. It’s a hard, dangerous life for
the fishermen. Using the simplest of diving gear, air compressors
with multiple air lines and with very little comprehension
of the hazards of diving, Balinese fish collectors risk injury
and death. Collectors make a solution of potassium cyanide,
which is still available although its use in fishing is now
illegal, in a plastic squirt bottle. Then they dive to the
reef, identify a target fish and squirt the cyanide toward
its face, hoping it will only be stunned. But it’s hard
to control the dose of cyanide or the drift of the poison
along the reef, where it kills the sensitive coral polyps.
The amount of cyanide needed to stun a large fish kills hundreds
of other organisms too. The target fish often die from the
chemical, or are damaged while being collected in hard nets.
On shallow reefs, the collectors walk on and damage the fragile
coral in their search for fish.
Training the fishers in sustainable collecting techniques
was an early priority. The Lilleys researched extensively
to find a softer netting material to reduce damage to the
fish, which is now used by the collectors in the program.
The use of cyanide is being phased out as fishermen are trained
to snorkel and use face masks and fins, which give them greater
visibility and mobility in the water. The collectors can see
for themselves that it’s cheaper in terms of time, money
and effort not to use cyanide. Collectors have also been taught
to dive more safely. Several have visited the decompression
chamber at Sanglah Hospital, a facility that is now available
to them. And training in post-harvest management has lowered
the mortality rate of the fish significantly.
Two of the collectors from Les, Tejakula, have now become
trainers in other Indonesia communities. “These are
the stars of the program,” explains Gayatri. “They
are training collectors as far away as the Mentawai Islands,
Pangkep and Buton.” MAC’s programs have also expanded
from Bali to the Thousand Islands off Jakarta and Sulawesi.
MAC’s next challenge is to help the communities living
in the Banggai archipelago, in central east Sulawesi. This
is the only place in the world where the Banggai Cardinal
Fish can be found. This popular aquarium fish has been exploited
since 1982, but collecting and handling techniques are so
poor that 50 – 70% of the catch dies before it reaches
the market. Reflecting the sad state of the industry, the
collector receives just Rp 250 for a fish that will eventually
retail for $25. The local government, NGOs and communities
have all expressed a need for MAC’s support there.
The Lilleys also work with the middlemen who buy fish from
the collectors and sell them to the exporters. The middlemen
play an integral role, and are being trained to keep records
of the catch and sales in log books, which can then be used
to establish catch quotas.
The North Bali areas where the Lilleys are working were surveyed
in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The abundance and variety of fish
is good and continues to improve in the No-Take Zones. Although
the aquarium trade has been active for decades, no catch records
were ever kept. Now the middlemen are trained to record every
fish they buy and sell, and the collectors are encouraged
to catch only what is ordered, as long as it remains below
an agreed total allowable catch. The Indonesian Department
of Fisheries supports the program by funding training for
the collectors, and has asked MAC to train its own staff in
data gathering and management.
Sustainable resource management, MAC’s eventual goal,
is still a long way off. But the wheels are slowly turning,
especially in the communities which have taken on stewardship
of their natural resources.
For more information or to make a donation to help buy snorkeling
equipment, nets or contribute to training, please contact
glilley@indo.net.id
