S

ome fishermen in Banten miss the days when they could rely on their instincts to gauge the weather.

Iwan Supendi, a fisherman in Kubang Puji village, said some days he travelled two kilometers from his home to the river estuary only to return empty handed after unexpectedly bad weather made the sea too choppy to catch fish.

He made the journey several times, wasting two liters of diesel fuel per round trip, until the weather was at last safe enough for him to go to sea.

“We were often surprised to find high waves welcoming us at the estuary when we thought we could go fishing. It forced fishermen to return home with empty hands,” Iwan told The Jakarta Post.

The father of two said he had no other way to check the weather except by visiting the estuary himself.

Iwan said he never received any information about official weather forecasts during his 20 years as a traditional fisherman.

“In the past, fishermen in my area were not very concerned about weather forecasts. Our instincts were frequently correct, but now things are unpredictable,” he said.

Traditional fishermen in North Sumatra shared a similar lack of weather information from the government.

“We have long complained about it to the government,” Tajruddin Hasibuan, head of the Sumatra chapter of the traditional fishermen association, told the Post.

Hundreds of thousands people depend on the sea for their livelihoods throughout Sumatra, including over 50,000 traditional fishermen in North Sumatra alone.

He said fishermen needed weather information because it was the key to determining whether they could go fishing or not.

“Weather information is like gold for fishermen now,” he said.

Iwan and Tajruddin made their comments after hearing a statement from the head of the weather agency that said weather reports would be sent less frequently.

“We send updated weather forecast every three hours. We’re afraid they would feel indifferent about the updates,” Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Sri Woro Harijono chief told reporters.

She said too-frequent updates might lead people to dismiss weather reports more easily.

Sri spoke at a discussion on government efforts to forecast extreme weather as a part of the nation’s food security programs that was organized by the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists (SIEJ) and the Environment Ministry.

Sri said she was aware of fishermen’s and farmers’ needs for weather forecasts and said BMKG supplied weather data to related government agencies such as the Agriculture, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and Transportation Ministries.

“It is their job to translate it into easy language suitable for each sector,” she said.

The agency posts updated weather predictions on its website.

The People’s Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara), criticized the government for giving fishermen poor access to weather forecasts.

According to Kiara. 68 traditional fishermen have been killed or reported missing due to extreme weather from January to September in 2010, and 550,000 fishermen from 53 regencies continued to be affected by the nation’s wild weather.

A study by Kiara said that fishermen were currently able to work 180 days a year on average due to weather, down from 240 and 300 days per year, which has led to a decline of fish at traditional markets, 80 percent of which were supplied by traditional fishermen.

“The government must open its access on weather forecasts to local fishermen. It could be done in cooperation with houses of worship, which might share daily weather forecasts with fishermen,” Kiara secretary-general Riza Damanik said.

The government could also send weather forecasts to local fishermen by text message, a move which would cost a “reasonable” Rp 5 billion (US$560,000) a year, Riza said.

Fishermen’s productivity has decreased due to significant climate change-related weather effects since 1986, according to a study produced by the social and economic center at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

The study said 65 percent of fishermen surveyed in Ciamis, West Java agreed it was harder to catch fish due to climate change.

Adaptation measures remained weak given the absence of policy intervention from the government, according to the study.