A

lack of awareness about climate change is exacerbating its effects on fisherman, an environmental activist said on Monday.

The nation’s fishermen have little choice except to return to seas that global warming has rendered unpredictable, if not lethal, according to Riza Damanik, the secretary-general of the People’s Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA).

“We recorded the deaths or disappearances of 86 fishermen at sea in 2010, a number that jumped to 149 in 2011 and further increased to 186 in the first eight months of 2012,” Riza said.

This rising casualty rate has been driven by increasingly extreme weather that affects waters unpredictably, especially for Indonesian fishermen who lack access to up-to-the-minute meteorological data, Riza said.

Although the fishermen lack access to weather forecasts, they have not been blind to the changes. Many have noticed that the waters have become more dangerous.

Others have described the effect of the changing climate on the sea in ominous ways.

Local fishermen in East Kalimantan, for example, have coined the phrase angin janda (the widow’s wind) to describe the recent appearance of winds that can whip up rogue waves up to five meters high in otherwise placid waters.

Such waves can easily engulf the tiny boats favored by local fishermen.

Similarly, fishermen in Central Java have noted the appearance of a new season, musim rendeng, or the soaking season, while those in North Sumatra fear the angin bakat, roughly translated as the omen wind.

“These concepts did not exist 10 years ago,” KIARA researcher Mida Saragih told The Jakarta Post.

That the ideas have become widespread in such a short time is evidence of how severe the affects of climate change have been.

Mida said that the government should supply current weather information to fishermen so they could protect themselves.

A report compiled by KIARA cited the example of a government pilot project in Indramayu, West Java, that installed computers in strategic locations for local residents to access weather forecasts.

The report also said that more radio stations could be opened to disseminate weather forecasts to fishermen too poor to own computers.

“There should also be climate insurance, so that people don’t have to worry about being caught off guard by extreme weather. This service has to be state-run though, because poor residents won’t be able to afford this stuff if it was privatized,” Mida said.

Last week, scientists warned that if the government does nothing to fight global warming, 2,000 of Indonesia’s islands could potentially be underwater by 2030.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) also said that 87 percent of the disasters between 2000 and 2012 were hydro-meteorological — such as floods, drought and landslides — leaving villages and small communities at risk. (png)