Damora A, Ariyogagautama D, Wahju RI, Susanto H, Wang J. 2018. Short Communication: Growth and mortality rate of Black Pomfret Parastromateus niger (Bloch, 1795) and Silver Pomfret Pampus argenteus (Euphrasen, 1788) in Paloh Waters, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 2247-2251. Three species of pomfret fish were caught in Paloh waters including Parastromateus niger, Pampus argenteus, and Pampus chinensis. P. niger and P. argenteus which were more dominant than P. Chinensis. Pomfret fishing in the Paloh waters is not carried out throughout the year, but generally only in August to October every year. The main fishing gear used was drift gill net. Data on the growth parameter and mortality of the pomfret fish is required as an effort for the management of this fish. This study was aimed to estimate the growth and mortality rate of P. niger and P. argenteus in Paloh waters, located in West Kalimantan. This study was conducted from April 2014 to June 2017. The fish samples were collected by catching the fish using drift gill net used by the fishing vessels. The data were analyzed using an analytic model and run using ELEFAN 1 software and Length-converted Catch Curve on FISAT II software. The result showed that von Bertalanffy growth parameters covering growth curvature (k), asymptotic length (L∞), and the age of fish in length zero (t0) was 0.26 year-1, 46.2 cm TL and -1.85 years for P. niger and 0.53 year-1, 46.2 cm TL and -0.88 years for P. argenteus. The von Bertalanffy growth function for P. niger as Lt = 46.2[1-e-0.26 (t+1.85)] and for P. argenteus as Lt = 46.2[1-e-0.53 (t+0.88)]. These functions described the expected or average length at a time (age). Total mortality rate (Z), natural mortality rate (M) and fishing mortality (F) were 0.93 year-1, 0.29 year-1 and 0.64 year-1 for P. niger and 1.68 year-1, 0.47 year-1 and 1.21 year-1 for P. argenteus. Exploitation rate (E) was 0.68 year-1 for P. niger and 0.72 year-1 for P. argenteus. The growth of P. niger is slower than the growth of P. argenteus and the fishing mortality of P. argenteus is higher than P. niger’s. Both of the exploitation rates indicated that the fish resources are over-exploited.

Small-scale fisheries are economically and culturally important throughout the world’s coastal waters. These fisheries, however, often have high bycatch rates of protected marine species. Bycatch in small scale gillnet fisheries is thought to be a major driver behind the declines of several sea turtle populations. Recent studies addressing this issue have identified net illumination as a potentially effective bycatch reduction technology (BRT) to reduce sea turtle interactions with gillnet fisheries. In Southeast Asia, small-scale gillnet fisheries make up a large components of fishing effort often in areas that overlap with important sea turtle habitat. We conducted controlled experiments of net illumination as a potential BRT to reduce sea turtle bycatch in a coastal gillnet fishery based in Paloh, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Results indicated that net illumination significantly reduced multi-species sea turtle bycatch by 61.4% and specifically green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) by 59.5%, while the CPUE of total catch and target species remained similar. Moreover, this study suggests that Indonesian fishers can increase their overall market value when using net illumination as the market value per unit effort (MVPUE) of both the total catch and target catch showed significant increases. These results suggest that net illumination could be an effective sea turtle conservation tool for small-scale coastal gillnet fisheries in Indonesia and potentially throughout Southeast Asia. In addition, data from the control treatments of this study also provided the first observer based sea turtle bycatch estimate for a small-scale gillnet fishery in Southeast Asia. Challenges to the broad scale implementation of net illumination to reduce this bycatch of sea turtles include the cost, availability of the technology, socialization of the BRT to fishers, and government interest and support for net illumination as a tool for bycatch reduction.

The management of small fisher in Indonesia is faced with unclear definition boundaries. Furthermore, the unclear boundaries will have impacts on the rights and obligations of small fisher as regulated in Indonesian laws and regulations. Small Scale Fisher (SSF) has been contributing to poverty alleviation, food security, livelihoods, local economy, and human rights. This is appropriate with fishing activities in Indonesia, where captured fishing fleet is dominated by small scale fisher. This study aims to map the definition of small fisher based on the government regulation, identify the impact of different definition of small fisher, and recommend the arrangement planning of small fisher in fishing activities. Normative juridical and comparative analysis are applied in this study. The result shows that there are various limitations of small fisher definition that impact illegal fishing practices, where small fisher are accused due to the absence of ship registration ownership documents. Therefore, synchronization needs to be implemented in relation with small scale fisher termination boundary to prevent one sided interpretation. Legal clarity is required with regards to the authorization of fishing vessel registration owned by small scale fisher