| REPORT Samsul Bahri /FFI FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL’S Time to catch your breath Survey on compressor fishing in Aceh province, Indonesia to inform conservation action AUTHORS: Indra, Rakhmat Dirgantara, Teuku Youvan, Casandra Tania, Henry Duffy and Daniel Steadman Radinal /FFI Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world’s oldest international wildlife conservation organisation. Our mission is to conserve threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science, and which take into account human needs. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Indra, Rakhmat Dirgantara and Teuku Youvan work for FFI in our Banda Aceh office, Indonesia. They deliver FFI’s marine conservation project across the Aceh province, bringing a variety of expertise from community liaison and conflict resolution to in-water ecological monitoring and spatial analytics. Daniel Steadman and Henry Duffy work for FFI in our Cambridge office, UK, providing support for in- country teams and partners, primarily related to fundraising, project design and institutional learning. Casandra Tania is an intern with FFI, prior to which she did an MPhil in Conservation Leadership student at the University of Cambridge, UK. She previously worked for WWF-Indonesia, primarily focussing on reducing threats to marine megafauna such as whale sharks and dugongs. HOW TO CITE THIS DOCUMENT: Indra et al., (2019). Time to Catch Your Breath: Survey on compressor fishing in Aceh province, Indonesia to inform conservation action. Fauna & Flora International, Cambridge. www.fauna-flora.org 2 SUMMARY Compressor fishing is the practice of collecting province’s customary fishing institutions, the wild marine species (primarily fish, echinoderms Panglima Laot. Compressor fishing has emerged and crustaceans) underwater while breathing air as a persistent source of conflict on the island supplied from a compressor (via a hose) on a and is likely to remain a significant management vessel on the ocean surface; it is a practice that challenge for the governance of Simeulue’s takes place across the world, but has been (and existing Pulau Pinang, Pulau Siumat dan Pulau remains) particularly prevalent in Southeast Asia. Simanaha Marine Protected Area (PiSiSi MPA) The use of compressors to fish is a “means to an and its three new MPAs (preliminarily end” and does not precisely describe a method of designated in 2018). fishing; once under the water, a compressor fisher In 2018, in order to better understand the risks and may use a variety of implements and techniques to motivations associated with compressor fishing catch fish, ranging from collection by hand to spear and to inform improved conservation action, FFI guns or encircling nets. Compressor fishing and conducted in-depth interviews with 42 Simeuluen associated practices can have dramatic negative fishers, from seven villages, who currently or impacts on marine biodiversity, including coral reef historically have used compressors to fish. We damage and declines of globally threatened reef hoped that the information from these interviews fish populations. would lead to better designed and more targeted Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has worked on conservation interventions to reduce damage from the island of Simeulue in Indonesia’s Aceh this activity within the communities where province since 2011, partnering with island compressor fishing is most prevalent and would communities and government bodies to better enable us to draw out some of learning points and protect the marine environment and strengthen the recommendations for action. Rakhmat Dirgantara /FFI www.fauna-flora.org 3 Indra /FFI The study revealed that compressor fishing on three years. It is strongly suspected that this is Simuelue is a high-risk activity. Regularly reported because this practice is moving to other parts of safety hazards included cutting off of divers’ air the island (where there is less management supply and panic attacks; pervasive negative oversight), rather than being eliminated entirely. health impacts ranged from minor joint pains to Based on the results of the study, FFI makes the major ailments such as deafness and even following recommendations to relevant paralysis. However, many fishers consider these stakeholders across Aceh province: risks to be worth taking, and the use of compressors is clearly a fishing activity of choice 1. Urge compressor fishers to consider the rather than desperation. In spite of the reportedly health and safety risks of this practice through elective nature of the activity, compressor fishing cross-sectoral awareness raising, involving is practiced by fishers that are particularly health and development sectors as well as financially vulnerable, holding multiple jobs and conservation earning below Aceh province’s minimum salary. In 2. Ensure that markets for fish catch on spite of the known risks of repetitive diving, the Simeulue are inclusive, deliver increased activity takes place all year round and, for the economic benefits for fishers (thereby reducing majority, on a nearly daily basis. the need to risk use compressors to fish) and The scale and nature of compressor fishing on incentivise legality Simeulue, as identified by our study, has clear 3. Recognise the realities of this socio- implications for the management of PiSiSi MPA economically complex fishing practice as well and the future management of the three new as the needs of compressor users and ensure MPAs. Community observations of compressor a “just transition” to other fishing activities. vessels within PiSiSi MPA have declined in the last www.fauna-flora.org 4 PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has worked on locations), security at sea, conflict resolution and the island of Simeulue in Indonesia’s Aceh coordination with local governments. province since 2011, partnering with island Through FFI’s work with these institutions on communities and government bodies to better Simeulue, compressor fishing has emerged as a protect the marine environment and strengthen persistent challenge, particularly for the the province’s customary fishing institutions, management of the island’s most established the Panglima Laot (which roughly translates as PiSiSi MPA. “sea commander”). In 2018, FFI conducted in-depth interviews with 42 Panglima Laot are traditional small-scale fisheries Simeulue fishers who currently or historically have institutions that are unique to Aceh; the term refers used compressors to fish, in order to gain a more to both the institution and the elected head of this nuanced picture of compressor fishing, particularly institution. Representing groups of fishers in a in terms of the health and safety risks posed to coastal area at the level of a single or several fishers and their motivations for conducting the villages, these institutions lead and organise activity. The aim of the study is to provide customary maritime and fisheries use law. Their information that can be fed in to better design of, jurisdictions extend to village-level customary and more carefully targeted, conservation marine areas known as “lhoks” and their interventions (that take into account the complex responsibilities include fisheries management health and safety implications and social norms of (through mandating closed fishing days for this practice) and to identify lessons learned points religious purposes, permissible fishing gears, as that could be applied in other locations. well as season timings or permissible fishing Radinal/FFI www.fauna-flora.org 5 Samsul Bahri /FFI WHAT IS COMPRESSOR FISHING? Compressor fishing is a globally distributed compressor diving is simply a means of collecting practice of collecting wild marine species – already captured or stunned fish i.e. after they primarily fish, echinoderms and crustaceans – have been caught in a trap (Pet-Soede & underwater while breathing air supplied by a hose Erdmann, 1998). from a compressor on a vessel at the ocean The method mostly commonly associated with the surface (Huchim-Lara et al., 2016). Compressor use of compressors is “cyanide fishing”, in which fishing is known to occur only in tropical regions bursts of cyanide solution from squirt bottles are and the technique is known by a variety of names used to stun the target fish. An appropriately in these regions, including “hookah” diving (due to calibrated squirt allows the diver to anaesthetise the use of air hoses akin to those used in the the fish, rather than kill it (ibid.). Cyanide fishing is vaporizing tobacco “hookahs”) and “pa-aling” (a thought to have first originated in the Philippines in term used primarily in the Philippines, where the early 1960s and spread to Indonesia by the additional bubbling hoses are used to chase fish). mid-1980s (Halim, 2002). A principal driver of The use of compressors for fishing is a “means to cyanide fishing is the live reef fish trade (the an end”; the term compressor fishing does not “stunning” effect of the poison allows the fish to be describe a method of fishing. Once under the kept alive for onward transport), but it is also used water, a compressor fisher may use a variety of to allow for easier catches of locally consumed or implements and techniques to catch fish, such as traded species (ibid.). spear guns or encircling nets. In some cases, www.fauna-flora.org 6 The use of compressors for fishing has two main coral colonies. If the fishers use cyanide at high negative impacts: concentrations, this can lead to coral bleaching (a precursor