Indonesia's fish catch affected by climate change

Antara 1 Sep 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Gelwin Yusuf, Head of the Marine and Fishery Research Office of the Marine and Fishery Affairs Ministry said fish catch had been affected by the climate change.

"The important aspect of the climate change impact is the pressure for food sustainability which is the change in the composition balance of the catch," Gelwin said here Tuesday at the Ministry office.

He said, if the La Nina phenomena caused wet drought in Indonesia until the end of 2010 or early in initial 2011, it would worsen production of lemuru for instance in Bali strait.

The decrease in this year reached lower than 24 percent than last year`s, he said, adding that it means 17 percent of the decrease occurred in the late 25 years.

He said, climate change also caused a five percent drop in the production of flooded-swamp fish in Indonesian waters in the last 13 years.

Gelwin said climate change could also change the composition of fish catch, and in the Atlantic waters the catch changed from demersal to pelagic ones, he said.

Demersal fish live on the bottom of the sea, while pelagic live in open waters, ocean and lakes.

The climate change was also considered to cause a change in the catch of starfish from vertebrate to invertebrates.

Gelwin explained, climate change put pressures not only on food sustainability, but also on coral and the marine ecosystem, society, and regional security.

Therefore, sea and marine technology could contribute to adaptation strategy and climate change mitigation, he said.

In the adaptation effort, the Ministry had built 1,612 climate-change houses in Tangerang, Lamongan, Demak, Pekalongan, Brebes, Indramayu, rembang, Pamekasan, Riau, Bali, and Banjar.

The Ministry also published fish spot approximation map consisting of maps of Sumatera, Kalimantan, Java-W Nusa Tenggara-E Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua.

It is important to produce supreme varieties which could sustain the effect of climate change, low-emission fish food, and eco-friendly cultivation technology to meet the need for adaptive technology of fishery, he said.