Boat-building boom threatens Aceh fisheries

"I'm catching more fish than I did before the tsunami," says Abdul Karim, captain of a large offshore trawler. "It all depends on what God wants to give to each person, but the important thing is that we should try our best."

Irman Yahya, captain of a fishing trawler, says the number of fish he catches is still quite good. The problem, he says, is rubble from Banda tearing his boat's nets. "I don't think we'll have a problem of overfishing," he says. "The boats that the aid groups are giving out are small boats, and the people who are getting them are not real fishermen. The [fishermen] who go out to sea are in boats like mine, and I don't think aid groups give those ones away."

The problem, says Indonesian government recovery official Sudirman Said, is that aid often does not reach the most needy, since "aid groups tend to go to the most accessible regions to work," and neglect harder to reach areas. In addition, some groups - in an effort to build boats quickly - built boats of unseasoned wood that eventually sank.

"We do need assistance to help us decide how many big boats are needed," says Mr. Said, spokesman for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias (called by its Indonesian acronym BRR). "If they bring really big boats instead of consulting with us, and they go to fishing areas that we cannot control, then we might have problems" with overfishing.

But the Red Cross's Martin says there are already signs of overfishing. Last March the average size of a yellowfin tuna was about 65 to 70 centimeters. Today it's 50 to 55 centimeters.

It was signs like this that caused Martin to cancel a Belgian Red Cross project to build dozens of small crafts, and instead to build a smaller number of large boats to be owned and run by collectives of fishermen. He also says that aid groups should create fish canneries and other onshore industries to generate income that keeps the value of Aceh's product in the province.

There are times, Martin says, when aid groups should not give people what they ask for, but what they need. "In Pidie [a town on Aceh's eastern coast], there are fishermen who are receiving small boats with global positioning systems and lights and double motors, which they never had before," he says. "They don't know how to use it, so they sell it to somebody else."

"We need to be sure it's for a real need before we provide them with boats," he says. He points at a 15-foot craft moored in the bay. "It's easy to build one of those in four weeks." He gives a shrug. "But I think it's cruel."

Page: 1 | 2