Indonesia tuna production makes up around sixteen percent of the whole tuna production in the world which is around 1 million tons of tuna per year. Furthermore the species that available in Indonesia water area also varied such as bigeye, yellowfin tuna, albacore, skipjack and southern bluefin tuna which are largely used commercially. Especially for yellowfin tuna since Indonesia is the second biggest producer of yellowfin tuna in the world after the Philippine. For other species such as bluefin tuna, bigeye, albacore, Indonesia holds the third place for the biggest producers for each of those tuna species.
Indonesia Tuna Production and fishery method
Indonesia tuna production are scattered among many area on Indonesia water and it is abundant. Usually they will then be unloaded into several fishing ports, the largest among them are Muara Baru in Jakarta, Benoa in Bali. Other known fishing ports which carry skipjack tuna are located in Sorong, Ambon and Belitung.
Regionally the tuna production in Indonesia are divided into two area which are the Indian Ocean that located in the western area of Indonesian sea and the Western Central Pacific Ocean that located in the eastern area of Indonesian sea. The tuna which caught in the Western Central Pacific Ocean mostly located within the EEZ area however for the tuna which caught in the Indian Ocean only twenty percent of them that is located within the EEZ area.
According to the type of fishery, the Indonesia tuna production can be divided into two types which are the industrial type and the artisanal type. The industrial type is tuna fishery which done using pole and line as well as longline method. While the artisanal is tuna fishery which done using small size purse seines, trolling equipment, Danish seine, and gillnets. Using the longline method, the fishers can caught big size tuna such as bigeye, yellowfin, bluefin, and albacore. While using the small size purse seines method, the fishers can caught smaller size tuna such as skipjack and small size yellowfin.
The Indonesia tuna production which located on the Indian Ocean usually using longline method with vessel which has super cooling storage and gross tonnage less than 200 tons. Using the method, fishers can take long journey and catch tuna within large area in the region. Indonesian government has put out regulations which prevent fishing done by vessels that does not have Indonesian flag or owned by foreigner inside the EEZ area. That is why a lot of longline vessels which used to operate under the Taiwan and China flags are now using Indonesian flag.
However there are some fishermen that done illegal fishing without license in Indonesia, they usually owned by other country but pretend to use Indonesian flag illegally. The new Marine affairs and fisheries minister now implement new policies which done to combat those illegal fisher. They will seize and destroy the illegal vessel when they find one. This new policies is hoped to give positive impact to the nation own fisheries. Now it is estimate that there are more than one thousand of longline vessels which operate legally using Indonesian flag.
Most fishing companies in Indonesia are owned by the state or joint venture between a private company and the state. There are also some that operates by traditional fishermen cooperatives. Those companies are involved in most production method from the catching, processing, as well as the export.
The Indonesia tuna production which located on the Western Central Pacific Ocean usually using small size purse seines as well as pole and line method with vessel which has more than 15 gross tonnages. The pole and line method is a traditional method which used by a lot of traditional fishermen in Indonesia while the small size purse seines method is still considered as new method which not used by a lot of fishermen.
The fishermen that use pole and line method are usually located within fishing ports in Sorong, Ambon and Belitung. They mostly use vessels which has less than 10 gross tonnages to around 30 gross tonnages. The fishermen that uses small size purse seines is only allowed to fish within the EEZ area and they are all have to had Indonesia tuna production license which usually for fishing smaller size tuna such as skipjack and small size yellowfin.