"Fish resources in Indonesia, including diverse eels, need to be managed responsibly in order to ensure their sustainability and provide prosperity for the eel fishing community," Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said in a press release received here on Sunday.
He explained that the application of conservation principles, and the involvement of stakeholders in the management of eel resources, were expected to ensure the sustainability of eel resources in Indonesia.
Currently, around 80 percent of the global eel consumption was sourced from cultivation, but the seeds still came from natural catches, he said.
In addition, the survival rate of eel seeds is very low, thus its commercialization could disrupt the stability of the eel population in the habitat.
This certainly threatens the national eel population, as it has happened in Japan and Europe. In Indonesia, one of the development areas for eel cultivation is Sukabumi District, West Java Province, on the Cimandiri River.
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The development of eel cultivation by improving the survival rate of eels in the critical phase from seed to tiller is part of the collaboration between FAO, the ministry, and the Sukabumi District Government, through the iFish Project. The project, which received financial assistance from the Global Environment Fund, utilized Sukabumi's Tonjong Fish Seed Center as the location to demonstrate growth of small eels.
The head of the Fisheries Research Center, Yayan Hikmayani, stated that previous efforts have succeeded in increasing the survival rate of seeds by 60 percent.
"The higher the survival rate, the less seeds that need to be taken from nature, so that it can reduce pressure on the eel population," she said.
IFish project collaboration with FAO and Sukabumi District had been ongoing since 2018, she remarked. The main focus of the collaboration was to generate a policy from inland water biodiversity conservation principles through demonstrations and sustainable utilization, especially for eel species.
Head of Sukabumi District, Marwan Hamami, deemed Palabuhan Ratu Bay waters one of the strategic waterways for the eel seed route in southern Java. "With the abundant seed resources, Sukabumi District will develop a long-term program for the utilization and management of eel fisheries, and make Sukabumi District an icon of eel producer in Indonesia," Hamami said.
National Project Manager for the FAO-IFish project, Sudarsono, said that Sukabumi Government would work together with other stakeholders to continue the IFish project in 2022 to create several policies, such as regional regulations for Inland Fishery Management, and the Master Plan for Management of Eel Fisheries in Sukabumi District.
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Translator: M Razi Rahman, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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