Guest guest Posted March 9, 2004 Report Share Posted March 9, 2004 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/3/9/features/7458681 & sec=fe\ atures ________________________ Tuesday March 9, 2004 Maintaining the balance By ACHMAD SUKARSONO Indonesia has hatched a tuna growth plan to feed the Japanese market for tuna, writes ACHMAD SUKARSONO. THE Japanese who eat tuna and the Indonesians on the island of Bali who catch it are combining forces to ensure the fish stays on Tokyo’s tables – and keeps income flowing to the fishermen. Japan is the major buyer of tuna from Indonesia, and the two have joined hands to set up South-East Asia’s largest tuna hatchery centre on the north coast of Bali, an island better known as a sun and sand holiday destination. “Japanese like tuna so much,” said Akio Nakazawa, the chief expert at the Indonesia Japan Tuna Propagation Research Project that opened last year in the sleepy fishing village of Gondol. “So, the Japanese government now wants to work together and establish tuna fisheries. I think to maintain the tuna catch at this level or more is very important,” he said, after showing how mother tunas were acclimatised in round blue-painted pools. The project is part of a long-established government marine research centre called the Gondol Research Institute for Mariculture that has successfully farmed groupers. Japan’s Overseas Fishery Cooperation Foundation has pledged to invest US$2.5mil (RM9.5mil) entre and assigned scientists to join Indonesian researchers in studying the hatching behaviour of yellowfin tuna. They now have around 60 yellowfins in their pools. More than half of them, each weighing around 5kg to 10kg are in a 6m deep, 18m diameter main pool where eggs are expected to be collected in August. Institute head Adi Hanafi said the centre is concentrating on the hatching process before rushing into tuna farming. Indonesia produces 200,000 tonnes of tuna every year worth around US$400mil (RM1.5bil), which includes yellowfin much favoured for Japanese sashimi. But it’s getting harder to maintain those numbers. The tuna hatchery is not a quick fix. “Indeed, this will take time. What’s important now is pushing for it. If this is successful, the contribution can be felt nationwide,” said Hanafi. Half a fish Over on the other side of the island, fishermen on Bali’s southern coast know time is against them. Thirty years ago, tuna-seeking vessels from pioneering state-owned Samodra Besar Fishing Co had the Indonesian waters to themselves and every 100 lines they threw would hook an average of two huge 30kg tunas. Now, getting just one with the same number of lines is considered a plus for the company, which has a key base at the edge of Bali’s port of Benoa, from where 20 Samodra boats roam the southern Indonesian sea. “It’s clear out there that we are getting less and less from year to year,” Soepriyono, Samodra’s Benoa branch head, said in his office with windows overlooking the bright blue ocean. A ship that spread 1,000 lines per day could hook at least 15 tuna in the 1970s and 1980s, when fishermen like himself felt “the ocean was so vast”, he said. “Now, for every 100 lines, we only have a chance to get half a fish,” the bespectacled Soepriyono said as he waited for Japanese customers to make their selections from his crews’ catch of the day. Such reports are bad news for Indonesia as the seas around the tiny island of Bali alone contribute 17,000 tonnes of yellowfin and bigeye tuna to the total for the world’s largest archipelago. Environmentalists blame overfishing for greater difficulty in finding the fish, and the phenomenon is alarming in Indonesia, which has opened its waters to other countries to fish. The fast-swimming southern bluefin tuna, found between Indonesia and Australia, is already an endangered species and a multinational panel oversees its conservation and limited catches. Environmental pressure group Greenpeace urges a fishing moratorium to ensure the growth of the entire tuna population and its escape from extinction. Crowded ocean Such calls are not well received by those making their living from fishing in Bali, even as they concede that with more than 600 fishing vessels roaming the waters near Benoa alone, the competition seems ever greater and the catch ever smaller. “Whenever there’s fish, everyone races to the area, one on top of the other. Suddenly, our ocean seems so crowded and whenever you move you stumble upon another boat,” said Samodra’s Soepriyono, who likes to call himself a fisherman. “But on whether they are on the brink of extinction or not, nobody can offer a clear explanation. So, why should we fear it?” Staff in Gondol also are uncertain about the real danger of extinction for Indonesia’s yellowfin or bigeye. But Indonesian researcher John Hutapea said the project was about avoiding a repeat of the bluefin crisis. “At least we’re now anticipating it so that we won’t only start to learn about it when it’s nearing extinction. We’re indeed stealing a start,” he said, after leading staffers in feeding vitamin-filled squid and dusky jacks to the tuna in the main pool. – Reuters <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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