Immediate impact of COVID-19 across tropical small-scale fishing communities
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all parts of human society (Corlett et al., 2020). Negative impacts on the fisheries sector includes closure of some fisheries, market disruptions, increased health risks for cosatal costal communities, exacerbated vulnerabilities to marginalized groups and increased illegal and unregulated fishing (Bennett et al., 2020). In Indonesia, reports of impacts on trade in many sectors including fisheries, may have far-reaching effects on the economy, jobs, health and standard of living (Djalante et al., 2020). The fisheries sector is an important contributor to national food security in tropical nations (Béné et al, 2015, 2016) particularly for SE Asia (Teh and Pauly, 2018). Indonesia is the second largest fish producer globally, with 55% sourced from coastal areas (CEA, 2018). It is the eighth-most fish-dependent nation in the world, measured by dependence on fish-derived animal protein (CEA, 2018), supporting 2.7 million workers in the wild capture sector and 1.7 million fishers dependent on coral reef species, the highest number globally (Teh et al., 2013). Small-scale coastal fisheries, defined as those operating boats under gross 10 Gross Tonnes (GT) (Suadi and Kusano, 2019), dominate multi-species coastal fisheries in Indonesia and deploy low technology fishing gears, including hooks and line, nets and traps (Halim et al., 2019; McDonald et al., 2018). While these fisheries underpin the economy of coastal communities (FAO, 2020a; Kovac, 2020), most lack the resources and capital to cope with economic shocks (Anderson et al., 2015).
The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia were reported on March 2, 2020 (Government of Republic of Indonesia, 2020a) shortly before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Before the pandemic declaration, Indonesia had already started implementing precautionary measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in February 2020, increasing the restrictions through to April 2020, including travel bans, partial lockdowns, social distancing, and intensified border control inspections and regulations (Djalante et al., 2020). During the month of February, international flights from China were halted, and the export trade of live animals from China to Indonesia was banned (Government of Republic of Indonesia, 2020a). In March, the Indonesian government announced the closure of some government operated fish landing port facilities, which provide logistical support, cold storage, fishing vessel permits, re-fueling, auctioning of fish and other services for the industrial fisheries sector, comprised of licensed vessels greater than 10 GT.
Closure of government managed fish landing port facilities disrupted the trade of fisheries products across Indonesia's provinces, resulting in the stock piling of fish in cold storage at fishing ports (Amysyah, 2020). Reported exports of fish from Indonesia to countries including France, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, and China declined by as much as 70% since February (Mubarok and Ambari, 2020). Emergency and stimulus actions were announced by the government to guarantee export and import distribution of processed fish products (Dinatri, 2020), ensure that idle cold storage facilities are available for fish, and to support domestic supplies of capture fisheries and aquaculture production (Susanto, 2020). That support, however, was focused on the industrial fisheries and port infrastructure.
The government assistance to the small scale sector has been less definitive. This may be a consequence of the limited information available on the economic impacts on the small scale fisheries sector. In contrast to the industrial fishing sector, which is a formal productive sector of the Indonesian economy with official statistics available from the number of registered boats, the operations of large infrastructure facilities in ports and processing plants, and clear volume and value statistics from official landing records and export statistics, the small scale sector does not have that statistical clarity. Small scale fisheries lie largely in the fragmented and decentralized informal productive sector of the economy. The sector is composed of thousands of independent actors as owner operators, microenterprises and small businesses, who fish, process and trade through a diverse network of markets, largely without formal financial records or connecting to financial institutions (Pomeroy et al., 2020). This results in systematic under reports of accurate data on employment and the economy of the sector. The lack of data means that governments are less able to identify, measure and respond to the impacts of economic shocks in the informal sector and may lack mechanisms to provide economic stimulus packages to affected households and small businesses if they are not part of formal financial systems.
Here we examine disruptions to small scale fisheries operations associated with restrictions implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the Southeast Sulawesi province, Indonesia where the first cases of the virus were recorded in early April. To date, few reports are available on the disruption to small scale fisheries in Indonesia due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Blue Ventures, 2020). Fishing communities across the region may be indirectly and directly impacted by COVID-19 cases through trade disruptions, infected people unable to work, and government response policies. We use a novel approach to collecting small scale fisheries catch data through the transaction records at the first point of sale by fishers to fish traders across 82 coastal communities in the province of Southeast Sulawesi. These traders have been recording transactions since January 2019 through the digital fisheries data collection system, OurFish. To augment this catch data, telephone interviews (using WhatsApp) were conducted with fishers and fish traders to record their perceptions of the level of impact on their lives, the causes of disruption, and the coping strategies they are adopting. Based on this unique set of empirical data, we assess the status and responses of these fishing communities and describe strategies that can assist them to cope and recover from the economic consequences of the pandemic.
Section snippets
Methods
This study was conducted in Southeast Sulawesi province, Indonesia (Fig. 1) where coastal small scale fisheries account for 73% of household income on average (Rare unpublished data). Small scale fisheries in Southeast Sulawesi may differ from other provinces with respect to cultural approaches that pertain to fisheries governance. For example, in Aceh, West Papua and Maluku some communities practice customary laws which can regulate fisheries practices, while in Southeast Sulawesi few fishing
Fisheries data
The number of active fishers and traders significantly dropped by over 90% after March 11, 2020, when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (Fig. 2C). The steep decline was significantly associated with the steady increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide (Fig. 2A, Figs. A.2 and A.3, Tables A.1 and A.2).
Total daily catch weight and value recorded in the sales transactions across Southeast Sulawesi declined after the pandemic declaration (Fig. 2D). Total daily
Discussion
We found that already vulnerable small scale fishers and the communities and industries that depend on them (e.g., fishers and traders) were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as both the total catch weight and the price per kilogram of fish declined resulting in large decreases in total catch value after the onset of the pandemic. Although catch weight and value fluctuated throughout the year, they sharply declined following the announcement of the pandemic on 11 March. This
Conclusion
Here we provide an empirical analysis of the immediate disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on coastal communities dependent on small scale fishing in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Most fishers and traders believed that a lack of trade in fish and declines in the value of fish were the primary causes of impact on their lives. Fisheries catch records verified these findings with immediate declines in fishing effort, and the trade in fish including the volume and value of catches, after
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
Logistical support was provided by staff of the district and province government agencies in Southeast Sulawesi. We are extremely grateful to participants who willingly responded to interview surveys, and the fishers and traders for making their fisheries catch data available.
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