Fishing communities in Indonesia. Source: www.newswise.com
Almost all of Indonesia’s capture fisheries are overexploited. Moreover, efforts to increase the catch of Indonesia’s fisheries pushes the fish populations ever closer to depletion. Bad fisheries practices further worsen the problem of overexploitation of marine resources. In the Arafura Sea, eastern Indonesia, bottom trawling for shrimp is strip-mining the ocean floor. The ratio of by-catch to shrimp caught in tropical waters is roughly estimated to be about 10:1. Destructive fishing such as cyanide and blast fishing on coral reefs has affected the ecosystems and the large number of marine species that are dependent on the ecosystems for survival.