By: Buguh Tri Hardianto (Capture Fisheries Assistant for Reef Fish and Shrimp Commodities)

Consumption of reef fish is one of the fishery resources that is widely exploited and utilized as a source of animal protein from the sea. Of the many waters in the State Fisheries Management Area of the Republic of Indonesia (WPPNRI), Maratua Island in Berau Regency, East Kalimantan, is one of the largest producers of consumable reef fish in Indonesia. This is based on data from the 2003 Manta Tow Survey, that the average cover of hard coral ecosystems on Maratua Island is 26.43% and the average cover of live corals is 37.09%.

Berau's waters are an important habitat for various types of consumable reef fish and several islands are known to be turtle nesting sites as tourism icons of Berau Regency, including Derawan Island, Semama Island, Sangalaki Island, Belambangan Island, Sambit Island, Mataha Island, and Bilang-Bilangan Island. If fisheries utilization is not environmentally friendly, the habitat of reef fish and sea turtles will be disrupted, resulting in potential economic losses for the local community. According to information from local fishermen, there are still those who carry out destructive fishing activities, such as reef fishing below the catchable size, the use of poison (cyanide), and fish bombs still occur. The impact for most fishermen today is the decline in fish catches both in terms of the number and size of fish caught.

HCR Workshop and Introduction of Coral FMP in Berau
Departing from these problems, on November 27-28, 2015 WWF Indonesia Foundation together with the Bestari Foundation in the JARING-Nusantara scheme initiated to introduce the method of collecting data on historical catch or historical fisheries utilization. In addition to this method, the Harvest Control Rule (HCR) analysis method was also introduced to several related stakeholders, including the Berau Regency Marine and Fisheries Service, Learning Center EAFM Mulawarman University, The Nature Conservacy (TNC) Berau, Berau Turtle Foundation, Tanjung Batu Fishermen Network (JALA), Da'Kayu Muyang Fishermen Group and Da'Kayu Akkal Fishermen Group.

HCR is a tool used to determine the utilization strategy of reef fish in a Fisheries Management Plan. On the second day, we discussed the draft document of Coral Fisheries Management Plan (Coral FMP) in Berau Regency, which then placed HCR as one of the tools in it. This aims to determine the strategy of coral reef fish utilization in Berau Regency.

In the discussion of the draft Coral FMP document in Berau Regency, the roles of each stakeholder were also divided together with the Berau Regency Marine and Fisheries Service as the main person responsible for each management action plan. Meanwhile, data collection and HCR analysis will be conducted by the EAFM Learning Center of Mulawarman University in collaboration with the Bestari Foundation. The workshop resulted in several commitments, namely to collect data on fishing control regulations that will be used as a basic reference for determining utilization strategies and establishing fisheries management institutions in Berau Regency. In 2016, it is hoped that the draft Coral FMP can be used as a final document that serves as a reference for each stakeholder to implement coral fisheries management in Berau Regency.