Studies of Indonesian Tuna Fisheries [1]

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COASTAL AND OFFSHORE TUNA FISHERIES
IN MANADO AND BITUNG, NORTH SULAWESI

Nurzali Naamin, C.P. Mathews, D. Monintja


ABSTRACT

Since 1990 an important offshore industrial tuna fishery has been established in northern Indonesian waters. This fishery is theoretically confined to the EEZ, but in practice it occupies large areas of territorial and archipelagic waters. Fishing is carried out by "sets" or groups of boats based on a single purse seiner, supported by carrier and smaller patrol boats. These groups fish around rumpon (FADs) deployed in waters from 200-4,000 m deep, and take substantial catches, most of which is landed directly into General Santos City and other southern Philippine ports. The offshore fishery lands more than 50,00 mt per year from waters around North Sulawesi and northern Irian Jaya. Coastal fishing is carried out for skipjack by two kinds of small pole-and-line vessels ("funai": 5-15 GT; "huhate": 20-30 GT) in North Sulawesi. The coastal fishery landed less than 9,000 mt of skipjack in 1989, the last year before large scale offshore fishing commenced. Data for Manado and Bitung (North Sulawesi) were analysed to determine the effects of the offshore fishery on the skipjack and yellowfin fisheries based in these cities. Skipjack CPUE fell in Manado (from 50-70 mt/boat/year in 1980 to less than 20 mt/boat/year in 1992) and Bitung (from more than 100 mt/boat/year in 1980 to about 60 mt/boat/year in 1990). Effort on skipjack in Bitung rose slowly from approximately 40 boats in 1986 to more than 100 boats in 1991, and then fell to under 35 boats in 1995; the decline was probably due to competition with the industrial fishery. Industrial CPUE fell from 0.69 mt of tuna/GT of effort/year in 1993 to 0.37 mt/GT in 1995. Available data are insufficient for a complete analysis of offshore-onshore tuna fishery interactions. Nevertheless it is likely that industrial, offshore tuna fishing impacted the coastal fisheries in Manado and Bitung by reducing the amount of skipjack and yellowfin available to the coastal fishery.(full text)