Dewa Made Sena, a fisherman in Kuta, has been faithful to his profession, passed on by his father, since he was a teenager.
Every day, he proudly prepares his colorful traditional fishing boat, which is docked along with other boats at Kuta Beach.
But he rarely goes fishing now. His job is to take surfers out to sea to find the big waves.
It has been hard for us to rely on fishing. There are only limited fish left in the sea to catch, Sena said, adding that working as a fisherman could not satisfy his family’s daily needs.
In the last few years, Sena has worked temporarily as a pool attendant at a hotel in Kuta, near the beach.
I cleaned up and took care of the hotel’s swimming pool, while waiting to catch fish in my net, recalled Sena, who has now retired from his hotel job.
At present, he prefers to rent his fishing boat out to dozens of surfers.
A surfer pays up to Rp 50,000 [US$5.18] for every trip out to sea. Many surfers go out to the middle of the sea to find huge waves, before taking their surf boards to ride the waves to the beach, he said.
Sena speaks English quite fluently.
I learned English from my guests and I have never felt afraid of communicating in the language. I know they will understand what I am trying to say, he said.
Sena, and other fishermen living in the island’s tourist centers such as in Kuta, Sanur and Amed, have clearly realized that there was not much left for them in fishing to make ends meet.
Some local people are only able to play a limited role in the hustle and bustle of the tourist industry.
Kuta and other coastal tourist areas were once robust fishing locations with abundant yields of fish caught by local fishermen.
Bali is actually home to plentiful fish and marine products, with harvests of 12 million tons of caught and farmed fish every year.
According to the province’s data, Bali has 148 million tons of fishery potential from its 30,171.22 hectares of coast.
But for Sena and his fellow fishermen, this is just a meaningless, official number.
Every day, they have to struggle, fighting against the current extreme weather only to catch a few kilos of tuna and other fish.
Sometimes, we have to sail as far as the Bali Strait to catch fish, he said.
The fish sold in local markets, such as Kedonganan in Jimbaran, South Bali, mostly came from outside the island Lombok and East Java, he said.
Not all fishermen have acquired other skills like Sena.
I Ketut Putu is a traditional fisherman in Amed village in Karangasem. Amed is one of Bali’s diving havens.
Putu and hundreds of other fishermen in the regency are heavily reliant on their catch.
During the recent uncertain weather, with its strong winds and huge waves, the fishermen could do nothing but wait for brighter, sunny days.
To make it worse, the fishing villages in Karangasem have no fish processing and preserving centers.
All the catches have to be sold immediately because we don’t have ice boxes to keep the fish fresh, he said.
Amid the busy and flourishing marine tourism businesses in the former-fishing villages of Bali, local residents and fishermen, ironically, live in impoverished conditions. The rapid growth in tourism, as well as natural disasters such as sea abrasion and decreasing fish yields, have threatened the lives of so many fishermen on the island, while the authorities have closed their eyes to the bleak reality.
2012 PT. Bina Media Tenggara