Indonesia deepwater groundfish - dropline, longline, trap and gillnet

The Indonesian groundfish fishery comprise 4 fishing methods, drop-line and long-line, trap and gill-net. There are an estimated  10,185 licensed vessels  operating throughout the 11 WPP zones (June, 2020). These vessels operate across a broad range (i.e. from within the 4-nautical mile baseline the EEZ boundary, and in depths of 50 to 500 m. The fisheries are within FAO Regions 57 (the Eastern Indian Ocean) and 71 (the Western and Central Pacific Ocean).The geographical range is defined as the waters within the meridians of longitude 110° East and 140° West, and 12° South, 4° North. To the North this fishery borders the EEZs of Malaysia and Philippines, to the East, the EEZs of Papua New Guinea and East Timor, and Australia to the South.

Long-line comprises short lines carrying hooks that are attached to a longer main line at regular intervals (FAO). Longlines are laid on the bottom at depths of 50 to 150 m, with the help of small anchors or weights, and marked at the surface with flagged buoys. The lines deployed in the groundfish fishery are estimated to be between 200 to 500 hooks per set, depending on vessels size (Mous, pers com, September 2017). The bottom long-liners fish on the shelf area as well as on the top of the slopes that drop into deeper waters. Bottom long line fishing for snappers and co-occurring species is done with vessels ranging from smaller than 5 GT up to around 100 GT in Indonesian waters.

Drop-lining comprises a main line with one to 10 hooks and a weight (Mous, ibid.), held vertically in the water by hand (handline) or by manual reel. Several droplines may be operated by one fishermen or one vessel (FAO). Drop line fishers target snappers and other demersal species around structures and slopes throughout Indonesia from depths of around 30 to 50 meters on continental shelf areas, to deep slopes and seamounts 50 to 500 meters deep. Drop liners deployed in this fishery range in size from simple canoes to vessels more than 30 GT.

Trap and Gill-net fishing for snappers, groupers, emperors and co-occurring species is less widespread than the use of long line and drop line and is often done in a mixed fishery where hook and line methods are used simultaneously with the traps or gillnets. Commonly used deep water traps for snappers and groupers are made of metal frames and wiring, with the trap cages around 1.5 meters long and wide and about 0.5 to 1 meter high. Traps are usually baited and positioned near structures which are known aggregation sites for target species. Bottom gillnets are set horizontally near structures on continental shelf areas but also vertically along steep slopes and reef drop-offs, with one end tied off to rocks or coral heads on reef tops and the other end weighted and dropped several hundred meters deep, by stretching the net away from the reef over deep water before dropping it.

The size of vessels in this fishery include a broad range of vessels, including < 5 GT to > 30 GT. Fishers are licensed by permit system with MMAF responsible for licensing vessels > 30 GT, Dinas Perikanan Province, for vessels between 5 to 30 GT, and Dinas districts, for all vessels under 5 GT. Vessels are licensed annually, according to broad definitions of fishing method. However, the method and target species for vessels less than 5 GT may change according to availability of the target species. Larger vessels are known to move long distances and into different jurisdictional area, in which case, they will be required to hold several licenses. Vessels over 30 GT are only allowed to hold two concurrent WPP licenses. 

The stock assessment programme comprises a number of proxy assessments of the multi-species deepwater dropline and longline fisheries targeting snappers, groupers, emperors, and grunters, located at depths ranging from 50 to 500 metres. These proxy assessments are identified as reasonable proxies of stock biomass for the Point of Recruitment Impairment (PRI) and/or Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). There are  395 individual Units of Assessment (UoA), representing 90% of the total species numbers in the dropline fishery and 90% in the longline fishery. The expectation is that the 396 UoAs, will be separated between dropline-caught species by. management area, with each area representing single stocks. Many, of these species occur in both fisheries and in each management area.

There is presently no harvest strategy applied to these fisheries by the management authority, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF).

The following FIP development priorities have been identified:

MSC Principle 1

Using a suite of proxies, development of agreed Performance Indicators and Reference Points to define stock status based on existing data sets (e.g. fishery-independent surveys)

Provide a sufficiently robust estimate of the removals from each stock by Indonesian fisheries other than the sub-fisheries under assessment 

Development of a harvest strategy which is responsive to the state of the stock and the elements of the harvest strategy work together towards achieving the stock management objectives of each target species fluctuating around a level consistent with MSY.

Provide evidence of well-defined HCRs are in place and applied to ensure the exploitation rate is reduced as the PRI is approached 

MSC Principle 2

Provide a comprehensive table on other species catches, taken by each sub-fishery, and relating these numbers to the total catch in each fishery. This requires some elaboration of the data collection system for each of the groundfish fisheries in each WPP . Once collected, the assessment will need to review species caught, their status and vulnerability if between 2-5% of the total catch), and whether the UoA fishery is likely to impact on these stocks. From information gathered to date, this would appear to be quite unlikely.

Review whether ot not the fishery requires a shark finning strategy. Sharks caught represent less than 1% of the total catch of all species.

Review the impact of lost gears on marine habitats.

Implement a policy of non-discarding of waste, or any other synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compoundsfrom fishing vessels.

MSC Principle 3

Implement a fishery specific management plan that identifies short and long-term objectives, which are consistent with achieving the outcomes expressed by MSC’s Principles 1 (stock assessment, harvest strategies) and 2 (ecosystem management). 

Develop a comprehensive decision-making system is in place into the WPP consultative process that includes:

Develop and apply of a compliance strategy for the deepwater snapper and grouper sub-fisheries. 

Ensure that there is a fisheries specific management performance review process in place which is subject to internal and occasional external review.