Indonesia Nusa Tenggara Timur Day octopus - diver-caught, gleaning, hand gathered, handline, jig & spear

The Day octopus (Octopus cyanea) fishery is an artisanal fishery in Nusa Tenggara Timur, in southeast Indonesia encompassing the islands of Flores, Sumba, and Timor and their associated waters in the Flores and Suva Sea.  Waters within scope of the FIP straddle FAO areas 71 and 57, with the boundary between the Western Central Pacific and Indian Ocean zones running through Flores Island.  The fishery is prosecuted entirely within the Indonesian EEZ and is not RFMO managed.

Fishers capture octopus in three main ways. 1. Shore-based fishing involves daily away-and-back trips from local village landing sites, using small vessels, or fishing from flotation devices.  2. Fishing also occurs further afield and further offshore, using larger mother vessels that bring with them 10-20 smaller canoes: these are used to collect octopus in different locations over a period of a few days at sea. Octopus are collected either from the surface by fishers remaining in their vessels, or by fishers working directly in the water. When fishers work from the surface, octopi are attracted away from structure by jig-like lures (pocong-pocong/kulepa), hooked, and pulled up.  Octopus may also be collected in the water from open bottoms or reef structure by spearing and hand-gathering.  3. Gleaning for octopus also occurs in the intertidal and shallow sub-tidal waters.

FIP participants are fishers/vessels selling legally sized product into supply chains selling to PT Agrita Best Seafood.   

The main objectives of the FIP are focused on data collection and establishing basic fishery-specific management structures under Principles 2 and 3 of the MSC Standard and will also contribute key information related to the target species for Principle 1. 

This regional, Basic FIP, while its own entity, is intending to collaborate with other regional, Basic FIPs to support a future national FIP process, TBD.