Environmental Reliability Assessment for the Small-Scale Fisheries after the 2018 Earthquake and Tsunami in Donggala, Indonesia - The Voice from The Fishers

Abstract

Despite increased fish catches reported by most local fisheries agencies, it is undeniable that small-scale fisheries have expressed dissatisfaction about the difficulty of capturing fish in their fishing operations over the past decade. Numerous studies have shown that most coastal fishing grounds are already overfished, one of the causes the contribution of traditional fishers frequently undervalued. The investigation was conducted in the tsunami-devastated coastal villages of Donggala, Indonesia, in 2018, causing coastal degradation, including the destruction of mangrove and coral reef habitats, which diminished the diversity of coastal marine ecosystems. Using a modified version of the McKinnon Framework, this study assessed the environmental viability of small-scale fisheries from the perspective of their fishers. Eleven environmental variables, including its index and the relationships between the yield from fishing operations (revenue) and other environmental conditions of the fisheries, were evaluated. The study found that the reliability index was of 0.47, indicating that fishermen's evaluations on their fisheries are still marginally reliable (fair). Hence, improved coastal management must be implemented concurrently with disaster mitigation. Otherwise, the situation would be further marginalizing fishermen.