Fate of Anguillid Eel Fishery of Indonesia during the Covid-19 Pandemic

28 January 2021 -

Indonesia has a vast area of inland waters which is about 276.0 million ha, comprising 223.0 million ha of rivers and floodplains, 1.8 million ha of lakes, 27.0 million ha of reservoirs, and 24.0 million ha of wetlands and swamp areas. The country’s inland waters are inhabited by more than 1,300 freshwater fish species. Anguillid eel is one of the economically important freshwater fishes which is widely distributed all over the country.

However, the current COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented global socio-economic crisis including the fisheries and aquaculture sector. The Government of Indonesia has enforced a large-scale social restriction measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country, which limited the logistics and transportation resulting in the decreased demand for anguillid eels. In this regard, rapid appraisal was conducted on 16-19 September 2020 to evaluate the impacts of the pandemic to the key stakeholders of anguillid eel fishery of Indonesia.

The survey is part of the Development of Stock Assessment Methods and Strengthening of Resources Management Measures for Tropical Anguillid Eel in Southeast Asia project supported by the Government of Japan through Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) which is currently underway.

Detailed report can be accessed here: http://repository.seafdec.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12066/6597/NL43-3-SP.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.