By: Buguh Tri Hardianto (Capture Fisheries Officer)

There are still pros and cons related to the regulation issued by the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia in PERMEN KP No.2 Year 2015 on the Prohibition of the Use of Hela Trawl and Pull Trawl Fishing Tools. Some parties feel that there is a need for a ban on the two types of fishing gear because they are considered destructive to nature, others consider the regulation not pro-fishermen.

Fishermen who use the two fishing gears feel that the regulation has the potential to kill their source of livelihood. It turns out that not only fishermen, there are also fish product processing companies that feel disadvantaged by the regulation of PERMEN KP No.2 of 2015. This polemic led to the issuance of a policy by the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia that allowed cantrang to operate in Fisheries Management Area (WPP) 712, especially the waters of the North Sea of Java. The emphasis given in the policy is that fishermen must replace cantrang with environmentally friendly fishing gear, until an undetermined time limit.< br />

In the Seafood Savers scheme, WWF Indonesia took the initiative to invite fishing companies to participate in creating sustainable fisheries practices. One example, currently WWF Indonesia together with PT Sekar Laut Tbk and the Regional Government of South Kalimantan Province and Kotabaru Regency are conducting a Fisheries Improvement Program for shrimp commodities in Kotabaru, South Kalimantan. The program aims to create sustainable capture shrimp fisheries practices in Kotabaru.

One of the actions carried out by Seafood Savers together with PT Sekar Laut Tbk and Kotabaru Fisheries Extension, is the socialization of Better Management Practices (BMP) for shrimp fishing. Using BMPs, two pilot project fishermen groups were invited to implement environmentally friendly shrimp fishing practices. The activity was held on March 21-22, 2018, at the Secretariat of the Tunas Harapan KUB fishing group in Senakin Village and Usaha Bersama KUB in Sungai Pasir Village.

Before the socialization began, an assessment was conducted regarding the level of conformity (Compliance BMP) of shrimp fishing practices to the BMP itself. From this assessment, it was found that Tunas Harapan SHG's shrimp fishing practices were 78% compliant with BMP guidelines, while the Usaha Bersama SHG received a BMP compliance score of 77.3%. After the BMP compliance assessment, a sustainable fisheries simulation game was also conducted. The aim was to open and give an overview of sustainable fisheries itself to the fishermen groups. In the delivery of BMP socialization materials, the fishermen were quite active in following. One of the interesting contents was the recording of fishermen's catches. The fishermen were committed to start recording their shrimp catches after learning the importance of doing so.

From the results of the BMP compliance assessment and BMP material presentation activities, there are several points that need to be improved in the future. Among others, the cleanliness of the fleet, where fishermen are required not to throw garbage into the sea, catch shrimp according to catchable size and record catches. Some of these points will be followed up together between the two groups of fishermen and all shrimp fisheries stakeholders in Kotabaru, so that the fishing practices of the fishing groups can develop for the better and become an example for other fishing groups in Kotabaru.