Becoming more aware of preserving the beach for tourism, some local fishermen in Nusa Dua are making the effort to protect Mengiat Beach and manage it independently.
They have established a village-based cooperative, Yasa Segara, to organize their business.
Dozens of fishermen, as well as their wives and children, were busy with their daily tasks on Sunday.
The women and their husbands cleaned beach chairs and arranged them neatly on the white sand ready for rent, while a few younger men were seen sweeping the beach and collecting the rubbish.
Some others opened a small restaurant that bears the same name as the cooperative.
Around 8 a.m., as more tourists started coming, some of them were busy preparing surf boards and turning on their boat engines to take surfers out to look for the challenging waves.
I Nyoman Budiana, head of the Yasa Segara cooperative, said that 129 fishermen and their families in the village were no longer fishing and preferred to preserve the beach to make a living.
Only 12 fishermen still fish with their traditional boats and their catch is for their own consumption or for the beach visitors. We used to hunt fish, but now we hunt dollar bills, he said.
He said the local fishermen also opposed beach privatization by investors and would maintain it as
a public beach.
An investor asked to lease the beach area and manage it, but we rejected the idea. Let us [local people] manage it on our own for our mutual interest, Budiana said.
Besides renting out beach chairs and providing some facilities, they also cooperate with a number of hotels and villas that are not located by the sea, including Santika Nusa Dua and Swiss-Belhotel Bay View.
Guests of these hotels can use the facilities at the beach by showing a voucher. We ensure that tourists can enjoy a tranquil and clean beach here, he said.
Some local visitors are free to use the beach free of charge, but they are monitored to ensure they keep the beach clean.
Mengiat Beach is located in BTDC resort area. Besides Yasa Segara cooperative, there are also some groups of local fishermen that collaborate to manage the coastal area.
2012 PT. Bina Media Tenggara