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Indonesian fishermen grapple with climate change
Unlike the generations before them, Indonesian fishermen are grappling with unpredictable weather, high tides and depletion of fish stock.
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Fishermen prepare their boat at a beach in Central Sulawesi. (JP/Ruslan Sangaji)
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38-year-old fisherman from Pari Island in Jakarta’s Thousand Islands regency, Sulaiman, remembers his grandfather’s ability to predict the weather just by looking at the sky.
“My grandfather, who was born in 1921, could predict the weather next month just by looking at the sky. He would say ‘the wind will come from the west while the current flows to the east,’ and it happened,” he said last week during a discussion held by the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI).
“Now, if my generation tries to predict the weather, we would get it wrong.”
Sulaiman’s story shows how fishermen struggle to make a living amid the effects of climate change.
“According to ‘island people’ like myself who have knowledge of climate from our ancestors, we should be in the middle of the northern wind season. However, seasons skipped and we are in the southwestern wind season,” he continued.
The scrambled climates and ocean currents bring uncertainty for fisherfolk like Sulaiman, greatly affecting their potential catch.
Even worse, extreme weather also causes high tides that could endanger fisherfolk.
