- For generations the Bajo sea nomads from Indonesia’s Sulawesi region have relied on catching octopus to meet their economic and nutritional needs.
- However, in recent years catch volumes have declined and locals worry that overfishing and increasingly extreme weather threaten livelihoods providing for hundreds of families.
- In response the community began enacting seasonal limits in late 2022, closing the fishery for months at a time and imposing minimum weight restrictions on octopus that can be collected during the fishing season.
- Anecdotal testimony from fishers Mongabay Indonesia spoke with suggests income growth resulting from the policy has outpaced the regional minimum wage.
POHUWATO, Indonesia — Moji Tiok has spent more than a decade casting off into the Gulf of Tomini, where he spends hours hunting with traditional fishing gear among a diminishing pool of octopus south of Indonesia’s Gorontalo province.
“I’ve been an octopus fisherman since 2013, and back then it was very hard for us to find large octopus,” Moji Tiok, a member of the Indigenous Bajo seafaring tribe, told Mongabay Indonesia. “What we earn would just about cover our daily needs.”
Moji Tiok’s forebears hunted octopus for far longer than a decade. The world’s largest collective of marine nomads has sailed for centuries through this region of Southeast Asia.
The Bajo are itinerant mariners hailing from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Venetian explorer Antonio Pigafetta documented the diffuse group of sailors in the early 16th century. Five centuries later, Hollywood director James Cameron would draw inspiration from them for his film Avatar: The Way of Water.
In between these events, at the start of the 20th century, the Dutch colonial government in what is now Indonesia corralled Bajo seafarers into a newly created village called Toro Siajeku. That community today is known as Torosiaje, home to Moji Tiok and more than 250 other Bajo octopus hunters.
In modern Torosiaje, the Bajo people transitioned from living on boats to stilt houses in the 1930s, but they resisted a government drive to convert them to farmers in the 1980s. Instead, Torosiaje families returned to the water’s edge, where their identity remains anchored today.
In 2023 Mongabay reported on efforts by the Bajo people to conserve mangroves in Pohuwato district.
Averting crisis
Most of the Bajo community is sustained by Pohuwato district’s fisheries, with only a small minority working in public services or subsistence farming.
Data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries recorded octopus production in Indonesia of 55,913 metric tons in 2020, valued at around 1.2 trillion rupiah ($83 million at the time).
Research published in 2020 showed fisheries accounted for almost the entire Bajo economy. In Torosiaje village, 86.6% of the population (some 296 people) worked as fishers.
Fisheries accounted for 71.7% of the labor market across three Bajo villages surveyed by the research team, suggesting adequate nutrition and the ability to pay for health and education are tied inexorably to the fate of the community’s fishery.
Research on how octopus and other cephalopods respond to climate change is divided. Some studies conclude their natural fitness may give them competitive advantage as more vulnerable marine species suffer in warmer, more acidic seas.
Like many fishers here, Abdul Khalik Mappa said he worries the weather is becoming increasingly erratic as the climate changes, and that a depleted fishing ground poses acute risks to his community of sea nomads. Abdul, who chairs a local association of fishers, said he can’t earn a living whenever storms circle over this part of Sulawesi.
In response to these shifts, the Bajo community elected to shutter the fishery for six months, from Nov. 4, 2023, to May 7, 2024.
The Natural Resources Management Advocacy Network (Japesda), an NGO based in Gorontalo, has assisted the Bajo people in drafting sustainability policy since 2021. Jalipati Tuheteru, Japesda’s field manager in Torosiaje, said the organization needed around a year to win hearts and minds in the community.
The extended fallow period allows the fishery to regenerate. In addition, the new rules protect the stock by regulating the size of octopus that can be caught. The restrictions apply to two fisheries: Torosiaje Besar Island and Torosiaje Kecil Island.
Previously, almost 300 fishers in Torosiaje village would catch even the youngest octopus, which on a long enough timeline presents an existential threat to the wider population.
“One of the provisions of the regulation is that it prohibits catching octopuses that weigh less than 0.4 kilograms [0.8 pounds],” Jalipati said. “There is also a ban on the use of non-environmentally friendly fishing gear.”
Success story
The first trial closure took place at the end of 2022 and early 2023 for three months. When the restriction was lifted, fishers plucked 237 kg (521 lbs) of octopus from the water in less than three hours.
The greatest catch at that time was a heavyweight tipping the scales at 4.2 kg (9.3 lbs). It was the largest octopus seen here in more than a decade.
Fishers in Torosiaje told Mongabay Indonesia that the changes introduced have increased yields today beyond subsistence. Some say incomes have doubled after implementing this system.
On the day in May this year when octopus season kicked off, a small armada of the Torosiaje boats ventured out into the Gulf of Tomini. In three hours, the fishers managed to catch 57 kg (126 lbs) of octopus, with each boat managing a haul of five or six individuals using a clutch of traditional tools.
Khalik told Mongabay that the average income per month from octopus fishing had increased to 3-4 million rupiah ($182-$243) after the implementation of the catch window. That range is higher than the monthly minimum wage in Gorontalo province, which in 2024 averaged 3 million rupiah.
“I managed to catch one at 2 kilograms [4.4 lbs],” Abdul said. “Before there was an open-and-close system, the octopuses we caught only weighed 0.3-0.9 kilograms [0.7-2 lbs].”
Cause for optimism
Gusnar Lubis Ismail, a researcher from the Indonesian Marine Scholars Association (ISKINDO), said the new rules also help protect coral reefs and seagrasses, in addition to shoring up incomes in the Torosiaje community.
“The economic impact is clear: it has benefited the octopus fishermen,” Gusnar told Mongabay Indonesia.
The policy shift has helped soothe anxieties in Torosiaje about the impacts of extreme weather, and calmed fears of a barren fishing ground.
For now, reported incomes are above the provincial minimum. And for Bajo fishers like Moji Tiok and Abdul Khalik Mappa, it means the community can tack close to how their ancestors earned a living centuries ago.
“We have already felt the positive impact,” Khalik said. “We’re committed to continuing with this system for the sustainability of octopuses to support the fishing economy.”
Banner image: A Torosiaje fisherman’s octopus harvest. Slowly fishermen are starting to feel the positive impact of sustainable fisheries management, the catches are promising and even export quality. Image by Japesda.
This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site on May 31, 2024.
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Citation:
Kobi, W., & Hendra, H. (2020). Kajian geografi ekonomi: Studi kasus kondisi sosial ekonomi masyarakat Suku Bajo di Popayato, Gorontalo. Jambura Geo Education Journal, 1(1), 16-25. doi:10.34312/jgej.v1i1.4637
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