By: Saraswati Adityarini, Capture Fisheries Officer, WWF-Indonesia

The dock of Labuhan Lombok Fishing Port, East Lombok Regency, is packed with a tightly packed fleet of tuna anglers. On this eighty-two meter long pier, there are rows of boats from Mandar and Sinjai anglers waiting for their turn to unload and prepare to set sail to catch again for 15-20 days. The distinctive construction illustrates the place of origin of the fishermen, apart of course from their accent and the name of the boat which characterizes the culture of the Bugis Sinjai and Mandar tribes.

The middle room of the ship and the deck near the rudder of the ship is not only the fishermen's home while at sea, but also a learning space for them. While docked, on this ship, we held training on Better Management Practices (BMP) Tuna Fisheries, as a guide for sustainable tuna fishing, for fishermen. This agenda is a follow-up to the joint activities of WWF-Indonesia and PT Balinusa Windumas, a company that has been an official member of Seafood Savers since April 2017.

As a member of Seafood Savers, a network of sustainable Indonesian fisheries industry players, PT Balinusa Windumas will run the tuna fisheries improvement program with its registered supply chain in East Lombok, in partnership with UD Baura.

For 5 days, namely October 26-31, 2017, this training was carried out with a total of 70 participants who were tuna fishermen who were also members of UD Baura... The Tuna Fisheries BMP training was mostly carried out on the fleet docked at the dock, because the loading and unloading process of catches and supplies did not leave much time for these tuna fishing fishermen.

This training teaches fishermen to practice more environmentally friendly tuna fishing and handling. This is not only in the interest of maintaining the sustainability of fishery resources, but also ensures the sustainability of fishermen's livelihoods.

Not only one-way, in this agenda, fishermen participants are also invited to participate - by sharing information and suggestions for the improvement of Tuna Fisheries BMPs from WWF-Indonesia. Through an increase in the value of the pre test and post test results, fishermen seem to understand the material presented.

From this activity, we also understand that tuna fishermen are not aware of the FAD installation regulations and licensing procedures (Permen KP Number 26 Year 2014). Thus, the dissemination of information regarding FADs or other regulations is highly expected by the participants from related parties.

"The existence of this regulation is not a problem for us, because we realize that this regulation is also to protect us at sea later, if anything happens on the high seas," said Daeng Mahmud, Captain of Fantasiru. "Therefore, regulations like this need to be socialized to us," he added.

This training was also held in several fishing groups in Mandar Village and Turingan Village, the villages of tuna fishing fishermen. Both Sinjai and Mandar andon fishermen who have decided to settle in East Lombok, as well as fishing fishermen native to East Lombok.

Capacity building of knowledge and information at the fishermen level on fishing practices and regulations related to tuna fisheries practices will continue to be promoted to UD Baura tuna fishing fishermen who are the supply chain of PT Balinusa Windumas. This is the first step of many action plans to support the tuna fisheries improvement program in East Lombok Regency.