Sustainable development of fishing operations : a case study focusing on small vessels in Palabuhanratu, Indonesia

Abstract

The key factor in promoting sustainable fisheries is implementing a sustainable fishing operation that is not only environmentally friendly but also economically viable and socially acceptable. To achieve this, fish resources, fishing technology, and the organisation of fisheries should be managed proportionally. Regarding fishing technology, most of the existing approaches discuss the development of ecologically safe fishing gear but disregard the fishing vessel itself, which inspire this thesis to develop a novel approach focusing on the fishing vessel. Therefore, the main goal is to develop and formulate best practices for sustainable fishing operations, concentrating on small-scale fishing vessels. A case study was conducted in Palabuhanratu, a region with a significant number of small-scale fishing practices, which is typical of many fishing regions in Indonesia and other developing nations. This research investigates four principal types of vessels based in Palabuhanratu, specifically, pelagic Danish seiners, trammel netters, handliners, and lift netter. The selection represents the principal types of operations including activepassive fishing and demersal-pelagic fishing. The research was carried out in four stages. Stage one sought to understand the existing fishing practices, which produced a fishing operation model. Stage two was a sustainability assessment, which elicited the environmental, economic and social impacts of the current operations. Stage three identified the possible measures to improve the existing performance. Stage four formulated best practices for implementing sustainable fishing vessel operations, which resulted in management measures derived from a tradeoff between theoretical principles and potential implementation. The results show that when considering the fishing vessel, passive operations are generally more sustainable than active operations. The research also reveals the importance of trade-off between environmental, economic and social performances when comparing overall sustainability, as no single operation performs well in all elements. In conclusion, this research demonstrates a comprehensive investigation on the performance of small-scale fishing vessel operations. In order to promote sustainable operations, best practice has been formulated by considering the contribution of all sustainability elements proportionally