e-ISSN:2528-0759; p-ISSN:2085-5842 JIPK. Volume 12 No 2. November 2020 DOI=10.20473/jipk.v12i2.17940 Sinta 2 (Decree No: 10/E/KPT/2018) Available online at https://e-journal.unair.ac.id/JIPK/index JIPK Marine Ecotourism Potential in Unggeh Island Tapanuli Tengah Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia Zulham Apandy Harahap1* , Ipanna Enggar Susetya Study Program of Aquatic Resources Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, North Sumatera .Indonesia. Abstract Unggeh Island located in the administration of the Village Sitardas Badiri District, Central Tapanuli Regency into a marine tourism area. The development of marine ARTICLE INFO ecotourism Unggeh Island is an alternative to the economic improvement of society. This study aims to assess the potential of coral reef ecosystem in the Received: July 22, 2020 Accepted: September 26, 2020 form of percentage of life form coral, coral species and species and abundance of Published: September 27, 2020 reef fish found in Unggeh Island waters of Central Tapanuli Regency and to analyze the suitability of coral reef ecosystem in Unggeh Island for tourism *) Corresponding author: utilization especially marine diving and snorkeling. Coral reef community data E-mail:[email protected] collection was done by using SCUBA divers equipment, in identifying The coral community used underwater photo transect (UPT) method, while coral fish Keywords: diversity was observed by underwater visual census (UVC) method. Physical and Unggeh Island chemical oceanography parameter data such as temperature, salinity, pH, current, Ecotourism, Coral Reefs transparency and DO are performed at each observation station. The survey Reef Fishes results of coral reef observation at four stations showed different results. Percentage of live coral cover of station 1 to 4 were 25.40 %, 12.33%, 28.53%, This is an open access article un- and 25.53 respectively. Therefore, reef fishes found 36 species that consist of ten der the CC BY-NC-ND license families and 423 individual fishes. The results showed that Unggeh Island was (http://creativecommons.org/li- suitable (S2) for diving and snorkeling activities, with the carrying capacity was censes/by-nc-nd/4.0/) 3.054 persons/day. Cite this as: Harahap, Z. A., & Susetya, I. E. (2020). Marine Ecotourism Potential in Unggeh Island Tapanuli Tengah Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Jurnal Ilmiah Perikanan dan Kelautan, 12(2): 250-262. http://doi.org/10.20473/jipk.v12i2.17940 Copyright ©2020 Universitas Airlangga 250 Harahap et al. / JIPK, 12 (2): 250-262 1. Introduction Utilization and empowerment of potential resources site has been designated as conservation area. and marine services of small islands directed at tourism Therefore, it is necessary to have a research to reveal and fisheries development. This is based on two main the maritime potential of Unggeh Island, especially in reasons. The first reason is that Indonesia has an area of coral reef ecosystems, so that known condition of coral 70% which is the sea and has more than 10,000 small reef ecosystems, species, and abundance of reef fish islands with high biodiversity. Second, most of the found in the island to be analyzed suitability to be a population who live on the coast and small islands work marine tourism object especially for snorkeling and and have activities related to the sea (Bengen et al., diving. 2006). Development of ecotourism in coastal areas and small islands is one alternative to improve the economy of coastal communities. 2. Materials and Methods Ecotourism is a natural tourism activity in the area 2.1 Study site that is responsible for paying attention to the elements This research was conducted in July 2017, located in of education, understanding, and support for efforts to Unggeh Island of Sitardas Village, Badiri Subdistrict, conserve natural resources, as well as increasing the Tapanuli Tengah Regency, North Sumatera Province. The income of local people (Minister of Home Affairs data collection consists of 4 points of the observation Regulation No. 33 of 2009). Based on these regulations, one type of regional ecotourism is marine station. The observation station represents all of the ecotourism. Coral reef utilization is one of the research locations. Coordinate of each stations as follows: o o environmental services in the form of marine tourism, station 1 (098 45'50.15''E ; 01 34'39.00''N), station 2 o o o such as diving and snorkeling. Diving and snorkeling (098 45'27.5''E; 01 34'16.35''N), station 3(98 45'24.11'' o o o are very popular marine tourism in the coral reef E;01 34'45.18''N), station 4(098 45'26.60''E; 01 34'44.97'' ecosystem. Good management can support local N) (Figure 1). income and open up opportunities for local economic growth, for example by developing it as a diving and 2.2 Procedures snorkeling resort (Swearer et al.,1999; Cesar et al., These activities include primary data collection by 2003 in Zulfikar et al., 2011). measuring in situ several parameters of aquatic Unggeh Island is in the administration of Sitardas environments, coral reefs, and reef fish. While the Village, Badiri Subdistrict, Central Tapanuli Regency material used is the identification book of coral reef and which located at coordinates 1o34'23'' - 1o34'37'' N and identification book of reef fish (Kuiter and Tonozuka, 98o45'26'' - 98o45'42'' E. The distance of Unggeh Island 2001). Coral reef ecosystem data was measured using is about 11 miles from the mainland of Sumatera. The Underwater Photo Transect (UPT) method by topography of this island consists of lowland with a determining the lifeform type of coral reef ecosystem little hilly in the west. Unggeh Island has rocky and the percentage of coral reef cover and data analysis beaches in the west and south and sandy beaches in the is done with software CPCe 4.1 (Kohler and Gill, 2006). north and east. Exposure to the eastern seafloor is steep Reef fish data collection using Underwater Visual with a deep sea floor. Exposure to the southern, western Census (UVC) method (English et al., 1997). and northern seabed of Unggeh Island was overgrown with coral reef ecosystem (Harahap et al., 2019). 2.3 Matrix analysis of diving and snorkeling Sandy beach conditions and coral reefs make this tourism categories island an object of marine ecotourism (Coremap, 2008). The great natural resources potential, the lack of Tourism feasibility analysis is conducted to data availability and information about the determine the suitability of the area for tourism characteristics of Unggeh Island, so that the necessary research concerning the preparation of development. This is based on the territorial ability to management plans and development of marine tourism support activities that can be done in the area. The that is according to carrying capacity. Information and formula used for the suitability of marine ecotourism is data currently on Unggeh Island is the relationship as follows: (Yulianda, 2007). between coral reef ecosystem and coral fish communities (Harahap et al., 2019). Utilization of coral reef ecosystem on the island is currently only a place to find fish for local fishermen. The potential may Where: be more used to be a marine tourism object, especially TFI = Tourism Feasibility Index N for snorkeling and diving activities. Unggeh Island has = Parameter value (weight x Score) many various coastal ecosystem resources (coral reef, i N sea grass, mangrove, and reef fishes), and especially this maks = Maximum value of a category Figure 1. Location of research (Unggeh Island, North Sumatera, Indonesia) Based on the matrix of feasibility, subsequent preparation of feasibility classes for marine tourism activities. The feasibility parameters are arranged into conformity classes for each type of tourism activity Where: divided into four categories of feasibility, namely: very suitable (S1), suitable (S2), conditional (S3), and RCCWhere: : Regional carrying capacity unsuitable (N). Matrix of tourism suitability for diving K RCC: Ecological : Regional potential carrying of capacity visitors per unit area and snorkeling category (Table 1 and 2). Lp K : Large: Ecological of utilized potential area of visitors per unit area Lt Lp: a unit: Large area of for utilized a certain area category 2.4 Analysis of the Regional Carrying Capacity Wt Lt: Time : a providedby unit area for the a certainregion forcategory the tourism activity in a day The method to calculate the carrying capacity of Wt : Time providedby the region for the tourism activity Wp : Time in aspent day by visitors for each activity natural ecotourism development is by using the area of carrying capacity concept. Carrying capacity of the Wp : Time spent by visitors for each activity The ecological potential of visitors was determined area is the maximum number of visitors that physically by the condition of the resources and type of activities can be accommodated in the area that is provided at that will be developed. The large area that will be used certain times without causing destruction to nature and by visitors should be based on nature capability to humans. The estimation of carrying capacity for the tolerate visitors so the conservation of nature and the marine tourism area can be seen in the following safety of visitors is maintained. The ecological potential formula (Romadhon et al., 2014). 252 Harahap et al. / JIPK, 12 (2): 250-262 3. Results and Discussion coral was found in all research stations. The percentage of algae in the study area ranged from 0-3.4% consisting 3.1 Condition of coral reef of macroalgae and algae turf. Macroalgae is found at stations 2, 3 and 4 and algae turf at station 2. Highest The category of coral reefs condition was based on abiotic component with a percentage of 62.47% is at the Ministry of Environment Decree of Indonesia station 2 while the lowest at station 3 is 8.73%.