Climate Change Threatens Marine Fisheries

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

An aerial photo of fishing vessels at the Nizam Zachman Ocean Fisheries Port (PPS), Muara Baru, North Jakarta, Saturday (11/08/2018). Data from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry shows that the total value of fishery product exports during the first quarter of 2018 was recorded at US$1.15 billion. It increased 22.8 percent from the same period the previous year, which reached $962,583 million. The biggest increase in the export value was in the commodities of squid, cuttlefish and octopus.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Climate change has become a real threat to the marine and fisheries sector. In addition to coral bleaching, climate change is also forcing the migration of deep-sea fish to subtropical regions. This phenomenon requires immediate adaptation to reduce its social impact.

Climate change reduces the quality of marine habitats, in both shallow waters and deep seas. The warming surface temperatures in shallow waters have begun to damage and kill coral reefs, where many species of fish live. The uncontrolled clearing of peatlands releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that then dissolves in shallow seas, which ultimately kills coral reefs.

"The impact of climate change is being felt in various areas of our lives, one of which is the fishery sector that supports the lives of millions of our fishermen," Widodo S. Pranowo, the head of the marine data laboratory, research center, marine and fisheries human resources of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (BRSDMKP-KKP), said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The destruction of peatlands on the eastern coast of Sumatra releases 183 tons of carbon emissions per square meter every year. The data comes from the results of a study conducted by Widodo and Andreas Hutahaean from the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, along with researchers from Germany’s Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research, which was published in the November 2018 edition of Nature.

Aside from the carbon emissions released during deforestation, peatland destruction releases 21 million-25 million metric tons of emissions per year into rivers that flow into the ocean. The high concentration of carbon dioxide increases the acidity of water. "Highly acidic seas have two major effects, the reduced or lower content of dissolved oxygen. The other impact, is that it disrupts or even halts the growth of calcium carbonate in the shells of bivalves and coral," said Widodo.

Fish migration

Climate change also causes large pelagic fish like tuna to migrate from tropical waters to cooler waters. A 2016 study by Widodo and the Tuna Fisheries Research Workshop’s Fathur Rochman and Irwan Jatmiko found an increase in albacore tuna caught in the Indian Ocean, far from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

According to a 2018 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, if efforts to reduce the pace of climate warming succeed, marine fishery production in the EEZ will drop 2.8-5.3 percent by 2050. However, if the effort fails and the temperature increases, like it is at present, marine fishery production in the EEZ could fall from 7 percent to 12.1 percent by 2050.

BRSDMKP-KKP climate change researcher Novi Susetyo Hadi said the immediate impact of climate change was not in rising sea levels, but in increased coral bleaching. "Coral bleaching, which can cause reefs to die, has actually been a normal occurrence since the 1980s. However, it has become more frequent since the 2000s, and in many of our large oceans in 2016, so that many studies are connecting it to climate change," he said.

Novi said coral bleaching impacted small fishermen that depended on catching reef fish. The phenomenon would also hit the tourism sector.

Alan Koropitan, a marine expert at the Bogor Agricultural University and chairman of the Indonesian Young Scientific Academics (ALMI), believes that various studies show that Indonesia\'s marine and fisheries sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. "In fact, studies in international journals indicate that fishery production in Indonesia could decline 40 percent," he said. (AIK)