Technology Implementation for Monitoring Sustainable Fisheries

Hello friends, greetings from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Introducing us Chrisone Jeremi Faber Silalahi and Srisela M.Y Nenobesi. We are 6th semester students at Nusa Cendana University, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries, Aquatic Resource Management Study Program. Through this short article we will share stories from when we did our internship (PKL) in one of the MDPI field sites located at Fishing Port Oeba, Kupang.

The focus of our internship was the implementation of Spot Trace in detecting fishermen’s fishing ground and track. The Spot Trace is a device recording the location of the fishing vessel at specified time intervals (usually one hour). MDPI is trying to implement the Spot Trace device, as a monitoring and compliance tool to combat Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing for vessels <30GT, as there are already national regulations covering VMS (Vessel Monitoring Systems) for vessels >30GT. Having the Spot Trace device onboard means the fishermen can prove they were not involved in IUU fishing activities, starting the traceability of the fish while at sea. The fishermen can prove that they were not fishing in conservation areas or in other areas where they are not permitted to fish (i.e. fishing waters of other countries). In addition, by knowing the fishing ground, the relationship between the fishing ground and catch volumes can be determined and can be used as information for government in setting an appropriate policy.

The fishing ground information from Spot Trace can be used to verify the information provided during the port based data collection interview, thereby, improving the quality of data collection. In addition to installing Spot Trace, we also helped MDPI in implementing the Time Lapse Cameras. This tool takes pictures of fishing activities during fishing trips, usually every 15 seconds. The camera can potentially be used to identify the use of bombs, understand the FAD landscape and use and verify interactions with Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species, again verifying the information provided during the port based data collection interview. The interview results shows that mostly fishermen only saw ETP species but did not catch ETP species because they were afraid of the punishment that would be received from law enforcers.                  On the sidelines of internship, we also conducted biological sampling of the fish.

Biological data taken is in the form of fish length and types of fish species caught. These data are very important to support sustainable fisheries management. Especially the length of fish data, it can be used to assess the condition of the fish in the sea through the representation of fish lengths, related to the presence of juvenile and adult individuals.

We learned so much during our internship in MDPI, especially related to traceability technology to monitor fishing activities by using TLC and Spot Trace.

Writer : Chrisone Jeremi Faber Silalahi and Srisela M.Y Nenobesi