Economic loss as the impact of climate change on tuna fishermen in Northern Indonesian waters

Abstract

This study aims to determine how big the impact of climate change is on the economic loss of the catch of Tuna fishermen in the northern waters of Aceh Province, Indonesia. Unfavorable climate change has an impact on decreasing fishing catches due to changes in seawater biophysics such as increasing sea surface temperatures, increasing wave height, and wind. The respondents in this study were 40 Tuna fishermen, located in 6 (six) villages in the waters of North Aceh., from two different WPPs, namely WPP 571 and 572. Data were collected by interview and using questionnaires. The results of this study indicate that there is a decrease in the level of welfare of coastal communities which is marked by a decrease in income levels caused by climate change. The results of the Present Value calculation also show that there is an economic loss for both small boats (<5GT) and large boats (>5GT), and the slope loss for small fishermen is steeper than for large fishermen. This indicates that large fishermen are more resilient to climate change than small fishermen. For an adaptation strategy, it is recommended that Tuna fishermen on the north coast of Aceh waters, both those in WPP 571 and 572, leave small boats and switch to larger boats (>5GT) which are proven to be more resistant to climate change than small boats (<5GT).