Kaimana Site Profile: Mudcrab Fishery in Arguni District, Kaimana Regency, West Papua Province

Mudcrab fisherwoman. Photo credit: MDPI

The speedboat as main transportation mode. Photo credit: MDPI

Logistic Tips

The site is located in Arguni District,

Kaimana Regency, West Papua

Province. MDPI is working in 5

villages (kampung).To reach

Kaimana Town from Denpasar, Bali,

it can take until five flights through

six airports in five different islands.

To reach Arguni District, it can take

around three hours trip using

speedboat at least 15 HP

(horsepower) engine capacities with

volume of 5 GT (gross ton). The

distance between Kaimana Town

and Arguni District is approximately

60 km.

If the monsoon comes, the

speedboat sometimes cannot reach

Kaimana Town, and this will force

the boat to stop at Tanggaromi area

which is located at the entrance of

the Gulf Arguni. In this area, the

waves when the windy season is not

too large and is an area that can be

reached by land transportation from

Kaimana Town.

Suppliers and fisherwomen

regularly commute to and from

Kaimana Town. Currently, there is

no land transportations because of

the rugged terrain and other factors

such as infrastructure development.

Map of Kaimana

1. Fishers Associations (FA)

MDPI initiated to develop Fishers Associations (FA) in Kaimana for in the realm of implementing Fishery

Improvement Programs. The FAs was officially inaugurated in September 2015 by handing over

establishment documents to DKP Kaimana.

Currently there are 4 FAs in the Kaimana site:

1. FA Toftofu: 30 fishers.

2. FA Base Abuma: 40 fishers.

3. FA Itfunfidir: 20 fishers.

4. FA Totemasu: 47 fishers.

Fisherwomen who are joined FA developed by MDPI. Photo credit: MDPI

2. Life as Fisherwomen: Early Morning Activities

In the night before go to sleep, they will put a net into the water in front of the village in order to catch

the baitfish for mudcrab fishing. They do it by themselves or accompanied by their husband. In the

morning, the first thing they do is cook for the family and eat breakfast with them. After cooking, they will

check the net they put out the night before and will collect the baitfish caught in the net.

Cooking is the first activity to start the day. Photo credit: MDPI

Collecting the baitfishes in the morning. Photo credit: MDPI

3. Baitfish

The baitfish that are caught by net usually consisting of ikan sembilan ekor dua, belut garnies, ganadi and

lele (local names). Each baitfish will be chopped into three or four pieces.

Ikan sembilan ekor dua, one of the baitfishes. Photo credit: MDPI

4. Fishing Gear: Bubu (Fish Trap)

Bubu is a fishing tool largely known among fishermen, in the form of a cage shaped trap and it is a passive

fishing gear. This traditional form of the fish trap can be made from rattan, wire, metal, mesh, wood or

plastic that woven in such way so the target fish, once caught, are not able to get out. Baitfish are inserted

inside the bubu to attract the target fish.

Fisherwomen in Arguni District use bubu made from metal material. There are two shapes of bubu they

use: square and butterfly. Square bubu has dimensions of 45 cm length, 30 cm width, 18 cm height and

butterfly bubu has dimension of 55 cm length, 43 cm width, and 23 cm height. The Bubu is tied to 5 - 6

meters length of rope attached to a floating device.

Karel Yerusa, MDPI’s Kaimana Site Supervisor, is holding the square bubu on his right hand and the butterfly bubu

on his left hand. Photo credit: MDPI

Bubu with chopped baitfish inside it. Photo credit: MDPI

5. Fishing Technique

After the baitfish is inserted and tied into the bubu, they will go to the bubu fishing point. On the way to

the bubu point, they will leave the bubu open in order to save space in the wooden boat. They will close

the bubu perfectly after they reached bubu point and then put it down into the water. To spread 14 bubu

in the water, a fisherwoman needs around 2 hours to complete. The distance between two bubu points

is around 20 – 25 meters away.

The next step is the waiting process. They will wait and take a rest in rumah singgah for an hour before

they row the boat for around 30 minutes to the bubu points to check if there are mudcrabs caught. They

will check bubu one by one by pulling it out. If there are mudcrab caught, they will take the crab using a

net called tanggu to move the crab safely from bubu to the boat. Quick check will also tell them if the

mudcrab has eaten all the baitfish or if there is leftover baitfish to use again for the next lowering of the

bubu.

The fisherwomen will immediately tie the newly caught mudcrabs using plastic rope in order to prevent

the mudcrab claws from biting. To tie the mudcrab, the fisherwoman gently steps on the crabs and tie the

rope around the body and the claws. They will put the mudcrab into a sack after tying it up. The skill of

tying a mudcrab is a skill they learn from each other.

The next activity is putting down the bubu again and repeating the fishing technique activities until 6 PM

and then go back to village to sell the mudcrabs to local suppliers.

A mudcrab fisherwoman with all of her fishing gears. Photo credit: MDPI

6. Wooden Boat

Fisherwomen will put the bubu and baitfish into the small wooden boat whose length around 4 – 5 meters

equipped with wooden oar as well. The maintenance of the boat happens approximately once in a month,

a session where they will wash the wooden boat to remove moss and then they will dry it up under the

sun.

Wooden boat in front of the village. Photo credit: MDPI

Inside a small wooden boat of a mudcrab fisherwoman in Kaimana. Photo credit: MDPI

7. Fishing Ground

Fishing ground of the mudcrab fishing is around three hours rowing from the Kampung Tugarni; two hours

rowing from Kampung Bayeda and an hour rowing from Kampung Moyana. The fishing ground names are

Muara (Estuary) Tugarni, Muara Karora dan Muara Jarwara. The type of vegetation that dominates the

habitat of the mudcrab is the nipa tree forest.

Mangrove forest covers an area of 50,000 hectares that can be found along the bays and estuaries in the

area. Recently, the local government developed a policy to retain 30 % of forest areas into areas

designated for conservation.

The fishing ground with nipa trees. Photo credit: MDPI

bubu

rumah singgah (transit house for mudcrab storage)

8. Fishing Time Activity

Fishing time of mudcrab fisherwomen is from around 8 AM to 6 – 8 PM.

9. Mudcrab Life Cycle

Mudcrab Scylla serrata is the fishing target. In mating season, female crab carapace will be soft. Male crab

will climb on top of the female for mating process. By the time the female crabs will spawn, she will find

the location of the deep water to lay their eggs there. The number of eggs reaches more than 1,000,000

eggs per spawning event. By the time the eggs hatch, the juvenile crabs will be heading to the nipa and

mangrove forest. On their way to nipa and mangrove forests, many crabs die because of predatory fish.

Crabs that survive will undergo adolescence and adult life in the nipa and mangrove forest. At the age of

approximately 6 months, these crabs become mature and will venture out in search of food until it reaches

the deep water.

Scylla serrata mudcrab. Photo credit: MDPI

Female mudcrab (left) and male mudcrab (right). Photo credit: MDPI

10. Rumah Singgah (Transit House)

After collecting mudcrabs they caught into the boat, they will go to the transit home near nipa trees to

store the mudcrabs and then they will go back to fishing ground to return to fishing activities.

Rumah singgah serves multiple purposes: As a mudcrab storage and as a temporary home to stay. In the

middle of the day, they will take a break and have lunch in the rumah singgah. Usually they will stay in the

rumah singgah for 3 nights and then they will go back to the village to sell mudcrabs to the suppliers.

Rumah singgah size is around 5 meters length, 3 meters width and 3 meters height. It is made entirely

from wood from the forest near the village. Their husbands will go to forest to take the materials and then

they will transport it to the fishing ground using speedboat. Therefore, they only pay for the

transportation (speed boat rent and fuel) and nails. A newly built Rumah singgah can survive

approximately a year and then they will build a new one after a year.

Ownership of the rumah singgah is varied. It can be owned by personal or a team. Some of the

fisherwomen have a collaboration to make a joined rumah singgah together. In a rumah singgah, we can

meet not only the fisherwomen, but sometimes we can meet their kids, their husbands and their pets.

They will take their kids to fish and stay in the rumah singgah because they are still very young. Some of

the husbands visit the rumah singgah to help or to accompany their wives.

Rumah singgah near nipa forest. Photo credit: MDPI

Husband and dogs in rumah singgah. Photo credit: MDPI

Existing rumah singgah (left) and the construction of the future rumah singgah (right). Photo credit: MDPI

11. Landing Site

The landing site is located in front of the village. Fisherwomen will tie the wooden boat here and sell the

mudcrabs to suppliers.

Landing site. Photo credit: MDPI

12. Mudcrab Production

Based on the data from Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan (DKP) Kaimana, recorded production in 2014 was

as much as 36 tons, while the total crab sent out from the Balai Karantina Ikan (Fish Quarantine) data

showed 10% of total production or as much as 3.5 tons per year.

13. POKMASWAS (Kelompok Masyarakat Pengawas): A Community Based Surveillance

POKMASWAS was developed by DKP Kaimana, Conservation International and MDPI. It was officially

inaugurated in September 2015. The main function of POKMASWAS is to ensure that there is no violations

in the conservation area. They also have the assignment to give counselling to community about the

updated regulations. For data collection activities, they will support MDPI to ensure that the fishers fish

in sustainable way, based on government regulation.

POKMASWAS is equipped with speedboat. Photo credit: MDPI

POKMASWAS inauguration in front of POKMASWAS patrol basecamp. Photo credit: MDPI

14. Sirosa, Traditional House

Sirosa is a traditional house in Kaimana. It is a public space owned by the village. It made entirely from

wood, nipa leaves and tied with rattan, without nails at all. All of the materials are from the forest. This

traditional house has a function as a place to gather all of the community members to have meetings,

discussions, cultural events or celebration.

Sirosa has important role as public space for the community. Photo credit: MDPI

15. Deklarasi Adat

Deklarasi adat is a cultural commitment from the community to obey and to support the zonation system

of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Kaimana Regency. It is also a commitment from the community,

cultural leaders and religious leaders to align cultural policies to government policies. They are also

committed to be actively involved in MPA management and to actively communicate and coordinate with

government.

Deklarasi Adat. Photo credit: MDPI

16. Minimum Size and DKP Regulation

Currently the central government has not issued a mudcrab fishery status nationally. According P4KSI

(Research Centre for Fisheries Management and Conservation of Fish Resources), there has been no study

from Ministry of Marine and Fisheries Affair (MMAF) on stock measurement and management of the

mudcrab quota.

PERATURAN MENTERI KELAUTAN DAN PERIKANAN REPUBLIK INDONESIA NOMOR 1/PERMEN-KP/2015

TENTANG PENANGKAPAN LOBSTER (Panulirus spp.), KEPITING (Scylla spp.), DAN RAJUNGAN (Portunus

pelagicus spp.) stated that the mudcrab fishing can be done when the mudcrab’s carapace size is above

15 centimeters and based on SURAT EDARAN MENTERI NO. 18-2015 about additional rule for mudcrab

harvest, fishermen only allowed to catch the crabs with minimum weight of 300 gram.In Kaimana, a

mudcrab with 13 cm carapace length is already weighed 300 gram, so the fishermen are basically already

obeyed the government’s rule to catch the crabs with minimum 300 gram weight.

17. Data Management Committee (DMC)

DMC of Kaimana Regency was developed by MDPI in collaboration with Conservation International (CI)

and DKP Kaimana. The initial DMC meeting was held in October 2015. The purpose of DMC meeting is to

develop a co-management forum to gather fishers, suppliers, industries, universities, NGOs and

government to discuss about mudcrab fishery management in their region.

18. MDPI Office

MDPI office in Arguni District, Kaimana Regency. Photo credit: MDPI