BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMP) - EEL SEEDS CATCH
By: Nisa Syahidah
WWF-Indonesia is working with fisheries actors who are members of Seafood Savers (SS), implementing a fisheries improvement program for eel commodities in Indonesia. This started with the support of unagi-kabayagi buyers, most of whom were from Japan, to start concentrating on improving fishing practices to support the fulfillment of traceability of raw material sources and stock sustainability.
Unfortunately, the practice of growing eels still uses seeds from natural catches, because there is no technology capable of carrying out eel hatcheries effectively, both from a business operational standpoint and also the effectiveness of breeding on a controlled environmental scale. Fishery practices like this in MSC (Marine Stewardship Council), are included in enhance fisheries, where fishing practices are in the seed phase to fulfill aquaculture needs.
As a follow-up to this, of course, the implementation of best practices is required in collaboration with parties included in the supply chain for this fishery commodity, such as: fishing communities, collectors, to companies as producers. So the availability of a joint guide series (such as a pocket book) in the implementation of small-scale good fishing practices is urgently needed. This guide series is specifically for the edition of eels, entitled “Better Management Practices (BMP): Catching Eel Seeds, Methods of Catching and Post-Catch Handling”.
The stages of preparing this BMP are carried out through various stages, those are:
• Literature study (desk study), compiling existing regulations and the results of relevant studies;
• Data collection & information from the field in the main locations where eel seeds are caught, such as Sukabumi & surrounding areas, as well as collecting information on fishing practices that occur in several areas in Indonesia (Poso, etc.);
• Preparation of preliminary draft and internal review;
• Joint discussion & joint external review with relevant stakeholders such as the government; researchers, academics, NGOs and fishermen.
This BMP contains some content starting from; eel biology information in Indonesia, licensing & fishing legality, fishermen group organization, pre & post-capture, prevention of capture of ETP species, catch recording, post-capture handling, catch traceability, sustainable management and so on.
This BMP is flexible in nature (Living document), which will continue to be refined according to developments in the field and input from the parties concerned. The BMP for Eel Seeds catch is one of WWF-Indonesia's contributions in supporting sustainable fisheries management in Indonesia.