Artisanal shark and ray fisheries in Eastern Indonesia: their socio-economic and fisheries characteristics and relationship to Australian resources

• Murdoch University, Australia
• Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia
• Central Research Institute for Fisheries, Indonesia
• Centre for Agro-Socio Economic Research and Development, Indonesia
• Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Indonesia

Both Australia and Indonesia have fisheries that deliberately target elasmobranchs (sharks and rays), as well as other fishing operations that take them as bycatch. In northern Australia the targeted stocks of some species may be shared with southeastern Indonesia.
Indonesia currently has the world's highest annual reported landings of elasmobranchs, and exports elasmobranch products worth about US$13 million per year. However, there were no reliable catch data about species available from the Indonesian fisheries, and little management of their elasmobranch resources. The socioeconomic details of the Indonesian fisheries were largely unknown, but it was believed that many artisanal fishers relied heavily on elasmobranchs. More information about this was vital, because any management decisions could have a major effect on this group of fishers.
Accordingly, this project commenced urgently needed research in Indonesia to establish a basis for future stock assessments and to find out which species are caught. The project grew out of an initiative from the Directorate General for Fisheries (Indonesia) proposing collaborative research on shark and tuna. A bi-national working group identified several issues requiring attention, including the extent of stocks shared between the two countries.
This project focused on the artisanal fishery in southeastern Indonesia, because of increasing concern in the country about the economic dependence of these fishers on sharks and rays. Most of the species taken by artisanal fishers are thought to differ from those taken by the commercial long-line fishery. Research would establish a much needed basis for future stock assessments.

The project aimed to understand the socioeconomic characteristics of the artisanal shark and ray fishery in southeast Indonesian waters, and to provide an initial assessment of the status of the fishery.

The work was divided into four components. In the first, the team conducted a detailed socioeconomic assessment of artisanal fishers to reveal the extent to which they depend on elasmobranch products, and the relative importance of these compared to other sources of income from fishing. Team members unravelled the details of the fisheries and of the post-harvest activities and economic chains.
The second component focused on understanding the fish involved. The team established an elasmobranch reference collection in Indonesia and ascertained the species composition data for the region's artisanal fisheries, using market surveys. Scientists documented the fishing gear used, the location of fishing grounds, and biological parameters (e.g. age, growth and reproductive rate) of selected relevant species.
In the third component scientists identified species that are potentially shared between Australia and Indonesia, and assessed their relative sustainability. The team examined strategies for improving stock evaluation and management in the future.
The project also contained a component devoted to training Indonesian scientists within participating institutions in key areas of fisheries research and management.

Socioeconomic data were collected on numbers of artisanal fishers, boats, gear types, fishing grounds and fishing patterns. Although analyses encountered significant problems with the quality of official fisheries data, it was possible to identify four broad trends.
Although at the national level fish landings reached a plateau in the late 1990s, there is no indication of a fisheries' crisis.
Productivity appears to have increased, suggesting that productivity growth is possible with minor modifications to indigenous fishing techniques.
Both the macro and micro data suggest that shark and ray catch fishing is a minor but increasingly valuable component of the Indonesian commercial fishing industry activity.
Fishing activity at Cilacap mirrors the Indonesian-wide pattern. The Cilacap data confirm that shark fishing can be an important component of the returns to an artisanal fishery.
To describe the main biological, catch and gear characteristics of the fishery a bimonthly market survey at major landing sites/markets was undertaken. Between April 2001 and February 2003 the survey revealed 77 shark species representing 17 families, 61 ray species representing 11 families and a single holocephalan species. A Rapid Assessment Technique was trialled successfully alongside standard market sampling.
In the study of biological characteristics, the size-at-maturity of males was determined for 10 species - values for eight of these had not previously been recorded and the value for one other differed markedly from details previously recorded. Size-at-maturity estimates for females (as well as males) of three of the most abundant the rays were determined. A biological reference collection of elasmobranchs in Indonesia was established. A total of 38 new species - 21 sharks and 17 rays - still need to be described.
Sustainability risk assessments were completed on species for which sufficient biological data existed. Data on biological attributes of species were collated into a database - including birth size, size at maturity, age at maturity, maximum size, lifespan, litter size, reproductive period, reproductive strategy, pupping season and depth distribution - and these data used to rank species according to their productivity. Species with high productivity were given a ranking of 1, species with low productivity a ranking of 3. Parameters where no data were available received a rank of 3.
The project determined that Australia and Indonesia shared at least 71 species. A list of the key shared species requiring study and assessments was compiled for further study in Phase 2. Tissue samples were collected from all species for later genetic analysis.
At the final coordination meeting of the project, held in Perth in April 2003, it was agreed that the project had achieved its objectives and should proceed to a second phase (developed as FIS/2003/037). The original project laid the grounds for using genetic techniques to study the stocks of key species shared by Australia and Indonesia, to assess the status of those shared stocks, and to build on the baseline socioeconomic data to assess the possible impacts of any management measures on artisanal fishers. Work would continue on market sampling and biological research, particularly with regard to the key shared species, on the taxonomy of the (so far discovered) >39 undescribed species in Indonesia, and on fully documenting the extent of the elasmobranch fauna by publishing a new bilingual field guide.
Results from this project are to be integrated with other CSIRO Australian elasmobranch projects, and the team in the new project will contribute towards a National Plan of Action for elasmobranch management in Indonesia.