Capacity development to monitor, analyse and report on Indonesian tuna fisheries

Although this project was scheduled to start 1 January 2005, the project sign-on process was not officially completed until late-April 2005. The delay was the result of negotiations between CSIRO and ACIAR (and several other funding agencies) over several issues including indemnity clauses in project agreements. Consequently there were delays to commencement of most project activity components. However, since April there has been significant progress in all 3 primary objectives:
1. To improve and extend existing national systems and capabilities for the collection, compilation and analysis of reliable, high quality fisheries data for Indian Ocean tuna longline fisheries in Indonesia.
Project staff from Australia and Indonesia participated in 7 days of theory and practical training, delivered by Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Foundation (Japan), and CSIRO, for "Monitoring in Fisheries - Basic Concepts and Best Practice". The training was specifically aimed at staff within the Data and Statistics Section of Directorate General of Capture Fisheries as well as scientific staff of Research Centre of Capture Fisheries (RCCF) and Research Institute of Marine Fisheries (RIMF).
The trial observer program for longline vessels based at Port of Benoa commenced in late July, following the successful recruitment of 6 suitable Indonesian personnel. These observers, along with 6 trainee observers from Timor Leste, received 6 days of intensive training in Bali, prior to their first observer trips to sea in early August. RCCF and CSIRO developed a set of data log-sheets to suit the Indonesian longline situation and a database into which the observers have already entered all data collected to date. Contributions to the training from the Office of Control of Surveillance of Fishing Vessels in Benoa (WASKI) and from the longline fishing companies were excellent and feedback from them with respect to this program has so far been promising. All of the Indonesian observers completed 2 trips to sea (20 - 25 days av. trip length) before the end of 2005. However, a dramatic increase in nation-wide fuel prices in Indonesia in early October has had a large impact on fishing activity and similarly on the observer's ability to find suitable vessels to go to sea on.

2. To conduct a thorough review on Indonesia's tuna fisheries operating in the eastern region, including Banda Sea and Western Pacific Ocean waters review of Eastern Indonesia tuna fisheries.
The first of three information gathering trips for this review was done in September 2005. 18 days were spent surveying tuna fishing activities and data collection methods in the ports of Jayapura, Sorong, and Biak. The survey team of Craig Proctor (CSIRO) and Budi Nugraha (RIMF) received excellent cooperation from all staff interviewed within offices of provincial fisheries, regency fisheries, port authorities, tuna fishing associations, and commercial companies. Due to the delayed start to the project, the second review trip, to Bitung (North Sulawesi) and Ternate (North Maluku) has been rescheduled to early February 2006.

3. To develop a broader based capacity within Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to analyse and interpret fisheries data and to ultimately be able to independently produce and report fisheries assessments in line with international requirements for shared fish stocks.
The "Monitoring in Fisheries" training course (mentioned under #1 above), an early activity in the project, was aimed at improving methods of fisheries data collection within MMAF but also at improving capacity for analysis and interpretation of fisheries data. The participation of many senior and junior MMAF staff in this course and their commitment to address shortcomings of existing procedures bodes well for improved capacity within MMAF for achieving high quality fisheries stock assessments.
Lilis Sadiyah, one of two stock assessment trainees at RCCF within this project successfully completed an 8 week training visit to Australia in November-December. Lilis spent her first 3 weeks at CSIRO's Cleveland Laboratories in Queensland working with project staff of ACIAR's "Artisanal shark and ray fisheries in Eastern Indonesia and their relationships with Australian resources" (Project No. FIS/2003/037). The remainder of her visit was spent in at CSIRO's Hobart Laboratories where she received training from scientists in the Pelagic Fisheries and Ecosystems research group, on various stock assessment tools, including "R", and did exploratory analyses of data sets including data collected during the first 9 trips to sea by the observers within the trial Benoa longline vessel program. In October Lilis was awarded an ACIAR John Allwright Fellowship and will commence a MSc at University of Tasmania in June 2006.

2006 was a very busy year for the project and saw significant progress in all 3 primary objectives:
To improve and extend existing national systems and capabilities for the collection, compilation and analysis of reliable, high quality fisheries data for Indian Ocean tuna longline fisheries in Indonesia.
The main focus of effort for this objective during 2006 was on further 'bedding down' the trial observer program for longline vessels, based at Port of Benoa. The dramatic increase in nation-wide fuel prices in Indonesia in early October 2005, only 2 months after the trial program commenced, had a large impact on fishing activity and similarly on the availability of suitable vessels for the observers to go to sea on. Contributing to the problem was policy that vessels that stay at sea for a minimum for 3 months are entitled to very substantial fuel subsidy from the Indonesian government. So, this led to many vessels setting out for long periods at sea. The methodology of our observer program, with respect to coverage of the fleet, does not accommodate such long periods at sea for single trips, and is also considered far too long a period for the health and wellbeing of the observers. While attempts were made to obtain agreement from fishing companies so that the observers could return to port on carrier vessels after 4 - 6 weeks at sea, there were some long waiting times for the observers during early 2006. However, their time on shore was spent productively, with further development of the observer database and trip report format, both done with major inputs from Mr Budi Iskandar and Mr Bayu Merta from Research Centre for Capture Fisheries (RCCF), and from Mr Luke Orell (Australian Volunteer International) who was based in Bali for most of 2006. Even with the delays the observers were still able to achieve a good number of sea trips for the year (a total of 19 trips by 6 observers) and overall we are very satisfied with the progress of the trial program.

Directorate General of Capture Fisheries (DGCF), in collaboration with RCCF/Research Institute for Marine Fisheries, Directorate General of Marine Fisheries and Resources Surveillance, Indonesian Tuna Commission and other industry bodies such as Asosiasi Tuna Indonesia, Asosiasi Tuna Longline Indonesia, have plans to develop a formal fisheries observer program for Indonesia during 2007. This project's trial program is viewed by many as a solid base on which to build that program and there is considerable interest in its progress from within the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries and from the industry associations. At two key project meetings during 2006 (Steering Committee Meeting for Monitoring of Indonesia's Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries - Jakarta, 25th April, and the Workshop with Bali Tuna Longline Industry -Benoa, 12th July) involving participation of industry, there were discussions about the best strategy for the development of a broader, more formal observer program. It is generally agreed that a planning workshop is required to identify the key objectives, methodology, and resource requirements, and the appropriate ways of building on what has already been achieved in the trial program. Dates for this workshop have yet to be set but it is hoped it will occur during occur during the first half of 2007.

To conduct a thorough review on Indonesia's tuna fisheries operating in the eastern region, including Banda Sea and Western Pacific Ocean waters review of Eastern Indonesia tuna fisheries.
The survey team of Craig Proctor (CSIRO) and Budi Nugraha (Research Institute of Marine Fisheries) completed the second and third investigation trips to Eastern Indonesia in 2006. Bitung (North Sulawesi) and Ternate (North Maluku) were surveyed in early February and Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi) and Bone (South Sulawesi) were surveyed in mid-July. The trip to Kendari and Bone was originally scheduled for late May-early June, but had to be delayed following civil unrest in southern Sulawesi. In common with the first survey trip to Papua in 2005, the team again received excellent cooperation from all staff interviewed within offices of provincial fisheries, regency fisheries, port authorities, tuna fishing associations, and commercial companies.
The write-up of the Review is still in progress, but its key findings and recommendations have already been presented to the Eastern Indonesia Tuna Fishery Data Collection Workshop, Jakarta, 30 - 31 January 2007, and these will be used by DGCF and RCCF during 2007 in the development of a proposal for "prior research" (to be funded by Indonesia and Philippines Data Collection Project) as a preliminary to development of a "full scale proposal" for establishment of a monitoring program in Eastern Indonesia in 2008.

To develop a broader based capacity within Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to analyse and interpret fisheries data and to ultimately be able to independently produce and report fisheries assessments in line with international requirements for shared fish stocks.
The main focus of capacity development within this area of the project during 2006 was on further improving the skills and knowledge base of the two stock assessment trainees at RCCF. The first of the trainees, Ms Lilis Sadiyah, was successful in her application for a John Allwright Fellowship (application submitted in August 2005). Lilis commenced her candidature for Masters of Science (by Research) in School of Zoology at University of Tasmania in early July 2006, under joint supervision by Dr Leon Barmuta (School of Zoology) and Dr Natalie Dowling (CSIRO). The title of Ms Sadiyah's MSc project is A Preliminary Evaluation of Indonesia's Indian Ocean Tuna and Billfish Longline Fisheries, Based on Historical and Newly Established Sources of CPUE Information. During 2006 Ms Sadiyah gave two oral presentations in English; one on progress of the project's trial observer program to the Steering Committee Meeting for Monitoring of Indonesia's Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries (Jakarta, 25th April 2006) and the other presenting results of sharks and rays survey analyses to the Coordination Meeting for Project FIS/2003/037 (Bali, March 2006).
In mid-December 2006 Ms Sadiyah did a 2 week field trip to Bali and Jakarta to gather information on all aspects of data collection for the 3 primary sources of CPUE data that are the focus of her MSc project - the trial observer program, the long term historical data collected by company PT PSB, and the data collected by final year students within the Fisheries High School program.
The project's other stock assessment trainee, Ms Setiya Triharyuni, participated in several meetings linked to ACIAR projects during 2006. She assisted in preparation of presentations and in the organisation and running of Steering Committee Meeting for Monitoring of Indonesia's Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries (Jakarta, 25th April), the project coordination meeting for ACIAR sharks and rays project FIS/2003/037 (Bali, March), and the Workshop with Bali Tuna Longline Industry (Benoa, 12th July). Throughout the year Ms Triharyuni also assisted RCCF scientific staff with development of the database for the Benoa observer program. She also continued her English language training (funded by this project) - 3 months of IALF General English training, and a 5 week IELTS Preparation course.

The past 12 months has seen good progress across each of the three main objectives within the project, and, as we enter the final 6 months (project completion at end of Dec'08), we are optimistic that the majority of the project's goals will have been achieved by project's end.
The trial observer program, for the tuna longline fishery based at Benoa in Bali, continued to progress well, with the 6 observers having now completed a total of 44 trips to sea between them (some solo, some in pairs), on vessels from 8 fishing companies. Hook-timers and temperature-depth recorders have been successfully deployed by the observer team on some vessels, and have produced a dataset that is already proving beneficial in our, and industry's, better understanding of what are key factors that influence catch. Availability of vessels for observer placements remains an ongoing issue, and the recent (May'08) national fuel price rise is likely to further reduce the number of active vessels. Further discussions were held throughout the year (most recently at "Steering Committee Meeting for Monitoring and Assessment of Indonesia's Tuna Fisheries", Jakarta 27 - 28 May) to develop a strategy for the transition of this project's trial observer program into a broader, more formal observer program, and to further progress the implementation of a formal logbook/logsheet system.
The analysis of the data from the observer program is the focus of the research project of Ms Lilis Sadiyah (John Allwright Fellow) at University of Tasmania. Ms Sadiyah was recently successful in her application to convert from MSc to PhD candidature, in recognition of her excellent progress to date. The second of our stock assessment trainees, Ms Setiya Triharyuni, visited CSIRO Marine Laboratories for a month of training in April'08 and a second visit is planned for later this year.
There were several other capacity development highlights linked to project activities during the past year. Indonesia achieved of Full Member status of both Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) and made a firm commitment to achieve Full Member status of Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) during the coming year. For the first time, Indonesia produced catch estimates for key tuna species caught by the Indian Ocean longline fishery, to submit to IOTC and CCSBT, independent of assistance from external agencies. The plans developed by MMAF, to expand the current Benoa Tuna Monitoring Station into a formal Tuna Research & Monitoring Station by the end of 2008, were recently approved by the Indonesian Government. Also planned by MMAF is the establishment of a similar facility at Bitung in North Sulawesi, to become a centre of tuna fisheries research and monitoring for the fisheries that operate in the Sulawesi, Seram, and Banda Seas, and adjacent Western Pacific Ocean waters. Linked to establishment of the Bitung Station is the planned establishment of a port-based monitoring program for the eastern sector, a collaboration between Indonesia, WCPFC, and ACIAR. This project's Review of Eastern Indonesia Tuna Fisheries provided the baseline information for decisions on which ports are the most appropriate for initial implementation of the monitoring and trial of newly developed sampling protocols (utilising components of successful programs in Western Indonesia and Philippines). The plan of implementation was progressed at the recent workshop for the Indonesia and Philippines Data Collection Project in Jakarta, 29 May, and monitoring should commence at the Sulawesi ports of Bitung and Kendari by end of 2008, with the likelihood of an expanded program during 2009-2011 (contingent on funding).
Another project highlight of the past year was the Project Coordination Meeting held at Santika Beach Hotel, Bali, on 3 - 4 November. Eighteen participants from among all partner agencies spent two very productive days reviewing progress from the past 3 years of activity, developing strategies to achieve the remaining project goals, and discussing priorities for research activities and capacity development beyond the end of the project. The more recent "Steering Committee Meeting for Monitoring and Assessment of Indonesia's Tuna Fisheries", partially funded by this project, was a valuable opportunity for follow-up to the discussions of Bali and for identifying a clear schedule of action for progress on several fronts. The meeting was particularly notable for bringing together participants from IOTC and WCPFC (i.e. the 'east' meets 'west') to discuss pursuing a coordinated approach with Indonesia to address common issues with respect to the country's pelagic fisheries, across both ocean areas.