By: Usmawatti Anggita Sakti (Seafood Savers Communication Assistant)

Jakarta, August 24, 2017 - Joining the Seafood Savers membership and implementing the Wind Shrimp farming improvement program in 2015, PT Mustika Minanusa Aurora (PT MMA) officially achieved the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Wind Shrimp certification on August 18, 2017. With the achievement of this certificate, Seafood Savers has successfully escorted PT MMA to become the first ASC sustainable fisheries ecolabel certificate holder for the Wind Shrimp commodity in Indonesia.

"We are very proud to receive the first ASC certificate for tiger shrimp in Indonesia. We hope that this ASC certificate will help improve our tiger shrimp marketing abroad and benefit our farmers here. We will continue to add more farmers who participate in this ASC certification," said Wellyono Hiu, Raw Material Purchasing Director of PT MMA.

PT MMA is a shrimp freezing company based in Tarakan, North Kalimantan Province. Under the Aquaculture Improvement Program (AIP) scheme, the company registered the Giant Tiger Prawn (Penaeus monodon) cultivated in 2 of its ponds. The two locations are Rusli's ponds (4 ponds covering 100 Ha) located on Tias Binai Island, Tanjung Palas Tengah Subdistrict and Suminto/H. Dahari (3 ponds covering 15 Ha) in Sungai Bara, Tanjung Palas Timur Subdistrict, Bulungan Regency, North Kalimantan. Tiger shrimp farming in the two locations was developed with traditional systems, without aeration and without the use of feed. Total production of the two ponds is 20 tons/year.

During the fishery improvement process, Seafood Savers assisted in the improvement and preservation of the environment around the ponds through mangrove rehabilitation activities, prevention of protected animal hunting (ETP species) and recording of farming activities such as the use of fertilizers, lime, fry to monitoring water quality and shrimp health.

In addition to the physical improvement of the pond environment, social issues are also an aspect of concern in the AIP program. The social aspects carried out in the improvement program are matters related to pond workers, and related to the people who live around the pond. In terms of workers, there are various things that need to be addressed related to cooperation between owners and farm workers such as the existence of written contracts that are understood by farm workers, health insurance and work accidents for farm workers, as well as mitigation and conflict management that may occur in the pond. While related to social issues of society, it is necessary to ensure various things that can minimize the negative impact, while maximizing the positive impact of ponds for the community.

PT MMA also received support from the Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Tarakan City with, some provision of facilities and training related to disease testing in shrimp, regular monitoring of water quality, and various socialization on how to farm shrimp responsibly.

The process towards ASC certification is then completed by an audit by an independent certification body. Audits were conducted on various documents and records of farm activities, as well as observations and verifications made on the farms of the two farmers who submitted to ASC. The results of the audit of PT MMA were officially issued by ASC on the website www.asc-aqua.org with a validity period until 2020.

PT MMA's success in obtaining ASC-Shrimp ecolabel certification proves that the synergy between fisheries industry players (companies and farmers), NGOs and the Government will bring the process of managing marine resources to its goal of improving and improving the quality of fisheries resources so that they can be enjoyed sustainably. Moreover, the success of PT MMA in becoming the first ecolabel certified tiger shrimp company in Indonesia energizes other fisheries actors to commit to more fisheries improvement programs.