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Coral protection increases fish numbers, benefiting fishermen: Official
The efforts to protect coral reefs would garner massive support from people, especially fishing communities, as healthy coral attracted more fish, which in turn would benefit fishermen, an official with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry said on Wednesday
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T
he efforts to protect coral reefs would garner massive support from people, especially fishing communities, as healthy coral attracted more fish, which in turn would benefit fishermen, an official with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry's director general for maritime affairs, coasts and small islands, Sudirman Saad, said ecotourism would also help boost local, coastal economies.
'We are introducing the benefits of protecting coral reefs to fishing communities. We are getting a great response on this,' Sudirman said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC) in Manado, North Sulawesi.
He said the ministry had introduced a coral protection program and provided assistance to 30 fishing communities in coastal areas on Java and Bali. Before the reefs were protected, fishermen were only catching around 3 tons of fish per square kilometer per year. However, after a series of training sessions and assistance, they were collecting 12 to 18 tons of fish per sq km per year, an increase of more than 500 percent.
Commenting on this, Imran Amin of the Nature Conservancy said the ministry's work on coral reef protection deserved appreciation. He cited a fishing community in Tejakula village, Bali, whose coral reef was almost entirely damaged around two years ago but, since then, great efforts had been made to improve its condition.
In those two years, Imran went on, the state of the coral had improved and was starting to attract more fish to the reef.
Indonesia is home to 42,000 sq km of coral reef, which is the largest concentration in the region. The five-day WCRC conference, which runs through Saturday, aims to find ways to develop and maintain the business benefits of coral reefs. (nvn)
