By: Agus Jaenudin (Bycatch Assistant, WWF-Indonesia)

Beginning from a survey conducted in 2015 and early 2017, the waters around the Selayar Islands became one of the locations that have the potential for Endangered, Threatened, Protected (ETP) catching. Based on this, WWF-Indonesia conducted mentoring activities for fishermen in the Selayar Islands regarding Better Management Practices (BMP) Bycatch Sea Turtles.

With the hope that fishermen in the Selayar Islands can carry out proper handling of turtles that are accidentally caught by fishing gear, especially gill nets, this socialization also aims not only to provide an understanding of turtle handling but also to explore more information about the potential of turtles in the Selayar Islands. The socialization was not only carried out to fishermen but also to Village Heads, Marine Vocational School students, and several other relevant stakeholders.

The presence of sea turtles around the waters of the Selayar Islands is relatively easy to find, either swimming in the water or coming up to the beach to lay eggs. Not only fishermen, some Marine Vocational School students also claimed to often see the appearance of sea turtles. "I often see turtles, the sound is 'Hosshh' when the turtle comes to the surface of the water," said one of the students at SMK Kelautan Selayar, sharing his experience of sailing with his parents who are also fishermen.

Similarly, the village head of Bontoborusu said that sea turtles are often seen and even considered as pests because if they are caught in a net, the net will be cut and damaged. Despite the relative abundance of sea turtles, fishermen generally do not target sea turtles as their main catch due to fears of being arrested and punished by the authorities. This is based on the experience of several fishermen who were arrested and punished for catching sea turtles.

This poses a dilemma for fishermen because their fishing grounds are protected animal rookeries. Although local fishermen generally have an awareness not to catch sea turtles intentionally, supervision must still be carried out and continuously improved because there are fishermen from other regions who fish in the waters of the Selayar Islands who have not been tracked or proven to catch sea turtles. In addition, sea turtle egg poaching activities on the beach still occur, although they have decreased compared to the previous few years.

Along with the socialization and mentoring activities to fishermen on handling turtle bycatch, the next program to be carried out by WWF-Indonesia together with NOAA in an effort to mitigate turtle bycatch in the Selayar Islands is a trial installation of green LED lights on gillnet fishing gear.

The gillnet used for the trial consisted of two units. One unit as a place to install LED lights and the other as a control or without any treatment. Both gillnets were operated at the same time and in adjacent waters. LED lights were installed on the top riser rope of the gillnet with a distance of 10 meters between lights. The catch of the lighted gillnet will be compared with the catch of the control gillnet. The installation of LED lights on the gillnet is expected to be one of the solutions to avoid turtle bycatch, thus reducing the risk of net damage due to turtles being caught.