Snapper Consortium Members' Highlights

Progress was made in the different elements of our work because of the efforts by our partners in the Consortium to ensure achievement in the various management interventions that we seek.

Last year, Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) and Poseidon Aquatic Resources carried out a study in understanding plastics and gears usage behavior in the snapper industry. A survey among fishers described and quantified plastic use and waste streams, which are categorized in terms of fishing gear, catch preservation, and other plastic waste (e.g., food packaging & consumables).

Taking opportunity from the Crew Operated Data Recording System (CODRS) network, the study has collected 384 responses of distributed questionnaires from fishers using a variety of gear types based at over 50 different landing site locations across Indonesia or around 3.5% of vessels involved in snapper fishery. The large number of respondents created a significant sample in most gear and size categories.

Key findings from the study include the estimated Abandoned, Lost and Discard Fishing Gear (ALDFG) from the snapper fishery amounts to about 127 t, out of a total of 3,000 t produced by Indonesia’s demersal capture fisheries; and an estimated 658 t of plastic bags and plastic wrap is used in catch preservation in the snapper fisheries. In total, over 1,680 t of general plastic waste is estimated to be generated by Indonesia’s snapper fleet, consisting mostly of single-use plastic (food wrapping, drinks bottles, etc.) and some broken multi-use plastic items, including fishing gear items. Nearly 1,500 t is disposed of at sea per year, meaning that general vessel waste from the snapper fishery makes the largest direct contribution to marine litter. The small amount of gear waste generated in the fishery usually becomes part of this general waste stream.

Understanding the behavior in plastics and gears usage in the snapper industry provides a conceptual layout to achieve a holistic approach across prevention, mitigation, and remediation that would eventually contribute to protecting and conserving our marine resources.

This study is one of YKAN’s efforts to ensure that snapper fisheries in Indonesia meet the Marine Stewardship Council principle 2 standard: minimum environmental impact.

Catch sorting at wholesaler, Kupang.

© YKAN

In addition, the Poseidon team completed several studies aimed at supporting robust, science-based management for Indonesia’s deepwater snappers and groupers: (1) A management strategy evaluation was completed for the Arafura Sea (WPP 718), which underlined the importance of limiting new entrants to the fishery in order to promote stock recovery; (2) the team also explored the impact of decreased sampling rates in the CODRS program on the accuracy of fishery indicators; and (3) in partnership with MSC, conducted a comparison of management recommendations coming out of POSEIDON and MERA simulation tools to understand the value of model complexity (i.e., the ability to explore economic, spatial, and multispecies dynamics, as in POSEIDON), using deepwater snapper as a case study.

Results from Poseidon’s management strategy evaluation. Top: Status quo projections through 2040. Upper left: landings; upper right: earnings derived from each species; lower left: status (% of unfished carrying capacity) for the four species; lower right: total hours fishing effort Bottom: Kobe plots demonstrating the performance of alternative management measures

Another high point is the collaboration between the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and the Yayasan Konservasi Laut (YKL), a Makassar-based NGO. The group conducted scoping on the small-scale snapper and grouper fisheries in Makassar waters and the adjacent South Sulawesi. The group gathered information on the small-scale snapper and grouper fisheries profile, the impacts and adaptions of small-scale fishers to the COVID-19 pandemic, and fishers’ access to capital financing and credit mechanism.

The findings of the scoping were presented during the provincial-level Stakeholder Focus Group Discussion (FGD), on 10th May 2021, held in Makassar City. The purpose of the Stakeholder FGD was to gather inputs on strengthening snapper and grouper small-scale fisheries through the co-management approach in Makassar waters and adjacent. One of the follow-ups from the FGD is the initiation of a co-management approach on the snapper-grouper fisheries in South Sulawesi, which includes organizing the small-scale fishers as an essential key player who can play a significant role in this co-management.

The FGD was attended by fisherfolks, collectors, ADI members from Makassar, government officials from the provincial and district levels, and representatives from different universities and NGOs.

Another initiative by the Consortium is the Citizen Science Program led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in West Nusa Tenggara. As data and information are the basic needs to support sustainable fisheries, WCS has initiated fish landing monitoring activities in Saleh Bay since 2016.

Fish landing monitoring.

© Fish for Good, 2021

WCS has also trained more than 70 stakeholders to collect fisheries data using KoBo Toolbox, a mobile data collection tool to strengthen participatory approaches. Moreover, 52 fishers and fish collectors were actively collecting fisheries data independently in their respective villages.

As of December 2021, they collected fisheries data from 1,509 fishing trips, containing 73,417 individual fish (approx. 24,079.6 kg) from 32 families, including groups of demersal fish, pelagic fish, small crabs, and squids. From the data input, the fishers collected 1,918 fish length measurements and contributes to the monitoring of Plectropomus leopardus (35%), Epinephelus coioides (9%) and Lutjanus malabaricus (3%) for the Grouper- Snapper Fisheries Management Plan of Action (FMPoA) of West Nusa Tenggara.

We’re looking forward to the expansion of the Citizen Science Program to Alas Strait and its surrounding areas; and the involvement of the Scientific Forum for Sustainable Fishery Management (FIP2B) of West Nusa Tenggara for data supervision.

Another equally important support from the Consortium is through MSC’s Fish for Good project. A four-year project, funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, which aims to guide fisheries in Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa towards more sustainable fishing practices and, eventually, MSC certification. The Pathway Project approach engages with multiple fisheries in each country. Pathway Project’s impact extends beyond the immediate project, with the purpose of influencing management at a more holistic level than the immediate fisheries that may initially pursue MSC certification.

Hirmen Syofyanto, MSC’s Program Director for Indonesia, shared that the identification and mapping phase (Stage 1, 2019), analyzed fisheries by scoring essential criteria related to the species, gears, fleets, landing volumes, market demand, and government priorities. The mapping guided the selection of Indonesian priority species fisheries for Fish for Good-funded, MSC pre-assessment (Stage 2, 2019-2020), including snapper/grouper fisheries. In the last phase of the project, the Fish for Good program supported and facilitated each fishery to develop an agreed FIP Action Plan (Stage 3, 2020-2021).

Two snapper/grouper fisheries were selected for the Fish for Good program: brownstripe red snapper (Lutjanus vitta) in Banda, Maluku (WPP 714), and red snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus) and leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) in Saleh Bay, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) (WPP 713).

The Banda snapper fishery was selected for its importance to local food security. Due to the lack of fisheries data at the pre-assessment, the brownstripe red snapper was selected as a proxy species to give a general MSC performance of other target snapper / grouper species in the multi-species fishery. The pre-assessment document is the first in the area. The MSC, Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan Provinsi Maluku (Malaku Province Marine and Fisheries Agency—DKP), Dinas Perikanan Maluku Tengah (Central Malaku Fisheries Services), and Coral Triangle Center are currently discussing how to elevate the FIP into a bigger scope.

The Saleh Bay snapper / grouper fishery was chosen for the local stakeholders’ commitment through the Komite Bersama Pengelolaan Perikanan Kerapu dan Kakap Berkelanjutan Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Barat (West Nusa Tenggara Sustainable Snapper/Grouper Committee) to create sustainable snapper / grouper fishery management and to eradicate destructive fishing practices in NTB, particularly Saleh Bay. There was also a local stakeholders’ initiative for MSC certified snapper / grouper for domestic and export markets from NTB. Saleh Bay snapper/grouper fishery is currently at the implementation stage for their FIP Action Plan, led by DKP NTB through the Committee.

Lastly, the issuance of Ministerial Decree No. 33 in 2021 concerning Fisheries Log Book, Monitoring on Board of Fishing Vessels, Inspection, Testing, and Marking of Fishing Vessels, and Governance of Fisheries Vessel Stature has strengthened the role of E-Logbook to record all fishing governance in Indonesia.

Though the features are still limited and the collection of fish catches focuses on ships over 30 GT and a small number of boats measuring 10-30 GT, continuous effort is in place for the optimization of the E-logbook that will eventually harmonize data and applications and formats from various partners.

The Tropical Landscape Finance Facility (TLFF) has started work on the roadmap optimization of the E-Logbook and is expecting the endorsement from the Government this year. In this E-Logbook optimization process, MMAF has shown a strong commitment, leadership, and intention to gradually realize data-driven fishing governance in Indonesia, not only for snapper/grouper fisheries but also for all other fishery commodities.

Draft E-Logbook Optimization Roadmap 2021-2024, generated through various meetings involving relevant stakeholders. The draft roadmap is expected to be finalized and endorsed by the government in 2020.

TLFF

On top of all these efforts, there are also three recent papers resulting from the Consortium’s work on Indonesia’s snapper fisheries:

(1) A crew-operated data recording system for length-based stock assessment of Indonesia’s deep demersal fisheries, which provides an excellent overview of the way the Consortium applied the CODRS to assess the status of snapper fisheries in Indonesia. The lead author, Elle Wibisono, was a team member in the early days of the fisheries program, and she recently completed her PhD at the University of Rhode Island under the supervision of Austin Humphries.

(2) Exploring the status of the Indonesian deep demersal fishery using length-based stock assessments, this study used CODRS data to compare two length-based methods to assess the status of selected species caught in the snapper fisheries, and found that both methods reached the same conclusion: many, but not all, of the species in this fishery are at high risk of overfishing. The lead author, Donna Dimarchopoulou has been working at the University of Rhode Island as a postdoc sponsored by The Nature Conservancy.

(3) Using anti-theft tracking devices to infer fishing vessel activity at sea – describes how the Spot Trace trackers that’s used in CODRS provide insights on the spatial distribution of the snapper fishery. The authors used advanced algorithms to separate out fishing trips and spatial clustering routines to identify likely fishing positions. As you may know, fishers deploy these trackers on a voluntary basis, and they can turn the tracker off if they choose to do so. This is a feature, not a bug, in the design of CODRS. Dr. Peter Mous of YKAN has been part of this excellent collaboration between Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), two Indonesia governmental fisheries research agencies, and the Indonesian university BINUS.

Together, these efforts from the government, industry, and civil society will surely contribute to a vibrant, healthy snapper fishery that maintains the livelihoods of large communities of fishers and industry.