Overfishing, in addition to the global economic woes, has been blamed for reducing marine exports from Bali, Indonesia, over the last few years, an official confirmed.
I Made Gunaja, head of Bali Marine and Fisheries office, shared with Bali Daily on Monday that the marine export trend had been downward since 2007.
Gunaja said the government had pushed marine exports to the maximum, forcing many exporters to overexploit marine resources, establishing larger scale enterprises catching as many fish as possible.
In order to increase their marine and fish exports, they also net immature fish, Gunaja said.
There were some indications of overfishing but he could not elaborate on the facts. He also denied any possibility of foreign fishing fleets stealing fish from Indonesian waters.
Bali exports various marine produce, including tuna, mackerel, Balinese sardine, shrimp and seaweed.
In 2007, the island exported 106,895 tons of marine produce. These exports dropped to 96,635 tons in 2008.
In 2011, marine produce exports only reached 101,371 tons, below the 2007 export level.
The marine produce is shipped to Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, the US, Canada and Europe.
Bali actually has the potential to export 147,278 tons according to a recent survey from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minisry, said Gunaja.
The current European financial turmoil, combined with unpredictable weather, has also affected marine produce exports from Bali during the first half of 2012.
I Gusti Ngurah Made Sumantri, head of research and development at the Bali fisheries and maritime office, previously said that European countries were Bali’s major market, in addition to the US and Japan. Bali ships around 49 marine produce items, including fresh and frozen tuna, seaweed and aquarium fish to European destinations.
Marine produce topped commodities being exported from Bali. In the past, the island’s major exports were textiles and garments, jewelry, leather and footwear products, as well as handicrafts.
The island, he said, had been facing weather anomalies, which influenced sea conditions, especially in the Bali Straits, which is home to tons of tuna. Bad weather due to global climate change has also decreased the number of lemuru (Bali sardinella), used to catch tuna. We have to import sardinella from India, he said.
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has plans to conduct a thorough study on the impact of weather anomalies due to global climate change on the condition of Bali’s seas, as well as elsewhere across the archipelago.
The study is also expected to accurately reveal the real marine potential and impact of climate change on fish yields in Bali. The island’s tuna exports are the largest in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Wayan Suarsana, spokesperson from the marine and fisheries office, said that the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry was providing 27 fishing fleets for local fishermen from 2011 to 2015.
2012 PT. Bina Media Tenggara