The blue boat filled with fresh mackerel bobbed gently next to a 30-meter-long floating dock at a port in Cilincing, North Jakarta.

Darkim, 33, the owner of the boat, who had fished in Cilincing waters for eight years, said the floating port really helped fishermen with unloading their fish.

Built by state-owned energy firm Pertamina for the Ciliwung fishermen community and inaugurated on Aug. 15, the port consists of 10 floating docks.

“We’re really glad that we have it. For years we had been using a bamboo raft that we made by ourselves to move the fish from the boat to the land. We needed more people and more time to do that,” Darkim told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday as he and his crew were busy unloading mackerel from their fishing net and throwing them in a yellow bucket on the dock.

With the new floating port, he and his crew of five can unload their catch in an hour.

It was a great day for Darkim and his crew, he said. They started fishing at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and five hours later they brought home about 100 kilograms of fresh mackerel they had caught 2 kilometers from the port.

He then was ready to sell the fish at Rp 2,000 (15 US cents) per kilogram at the Cilincing Fish Auction, located just 10 meters behind the port.

Although the price was rather low compared to all the work they had done, Darkim was grateful because it was not every day that they could catch that many fish.

The floating port and the low price of fish are among the challenges faced by Darkim and hundreds of Cilincing fishermen. Having to compete with bigger boats using trawls, sometimes they come home empty-handed. Other times they face other problems, such as waste from factories in the area that pollute the water.

The waste interferes with their fishing as it makes the fish swim farther from their fishing area.

But even though life is hard and challenging for Darkim and his crew, they will remain fishermen no matter what.

“I don’t think I have much choice. This is what I’m good at, and this is what I will be for the rest of my life,” Darkim said. He has been fishing in the area since he was 12 years old.

Although the floating port is great news for the fisherman, M. Nasir, the head of Cilincing Management Unit, said it was just a temporary respite for the fishermen.

“We’re grateful that we have it. We hope it can be used for a long time, but we don’t think that’s what is going to happen,” he said.

It is not the first time the local fishermen have had a floating port.

“We made one before and it didn’t last long. Judging by the quality of this one, I guess it won’t either,” he said.

Nasir expressed hope that the government would pay more attention to the fishermen in Cilincing as activities at the port were pretty busy.

“With more than 400 fishermen in the area and 15 to 20 boats unloading their catches daily, we need a better port,” Nasir said.

The Cilincing community is one of six fishing areas across the capital besides Muara Angke, Kali Baru, Kamal Muara and Cakung in North Jakarta and Pramuka Island, which is in the Thousand Islands chain.

Agriculture and Food Security Agency head Darjamuni Taseda also expressed concern over the quality of the floating port, calling it poorly planned and shoddily built.

“We plan to build a better port in Cilincing and for other fishing communities across Jakarta, but this has to be planned well so that the ports last a long time,” he said.

Although he said the agency supported the fishing community and their activities, Darjamuni acknowledged that a port could not be built in the near future because the administration would build a seawall in Jakarta Bay. (hol)

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