Time is running out for Indonesian shark skinners as predator population plummets

LAMONGAN, Indonesia — Sulaiman is so used to skinning a zebra shark that he can skin the animal in just a few minutes. He sinks a knife into the 3-foot-long fish and removes skin and cartilage as morning breaks over East Java province.

“Only a few types (of sharks) are skinned,” Sulaiman, not his real name, told Mongabay Indonesia from Brondong Port, one of Indonesia’s largest fishing ports.

Once the skin and fins are separated from the shark on the dock by knife-wielding fishermen like Sulaiman, a network of distributors transports the products from Brondong to storage for up to a month.

Most shark meat is processed locally by drying, salting or smoking before being sold to retailers or restaurants. The finished products enter a supply chain with little international oversight.

Mongabay has previously reported on the plight of fishermen in Pantura, a coastal area in northern Java. Pantura’s fishermen are facing a rising tide of dwindling fish stocks and a government ban on purse seine nets, vast, tightly woven nets that are ruthlessly effective but notorious for high levels of indiscriminate bycatch.

The world’s largest archipelago nation is considered the world’s largest shark fisherman and a major exporter of shark products, including fins, liver oil, meat and skin. More than 200 of the world’s 1,250 shark species patrol reef passes and deep-water trenches across Indonesia.

While sharks are important to the livelihoods of Indonesian fishermen and a major source of protein in coastal communities, the increasingly unsustainable shark trade is threatening the survival of the ocean’s top predator, research shows.

The story of two CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a global agreement adopted in 1975 to monitor wildlife trade to ensure it does not endanger the survival of species such as sharks.

Although CITES lists several species of shark as protected, trade persists largely because of the difficulty of identifying species after processing. The convention does not apply to shark products traded domestically, allowing local markets to operate unhindered unless national governments decide to restrict shark fishing.

A report released in July by TRAFFIC, a UK-based conservation non-profit, in collaboration with the CITES Secretariat and Australia’s Deakin University, highlighted the challenges of conserving sharks and rays, with more than 24% of the species currently threatened with extinction. The authors stressed the need for more accurate trade data, pointing to discrepancies in units of measurement and inconsistencies in reporting across countries and territories.

The study recommended that all parties report trade data based on weight rather than number of samples, in addition to implementing traceability systems and resolving discrepancies in existing databases.

Furthermore, clearer guidelines on reporting requirements should be developed and parties should be reminded of their obligation to submit detailed annual reports, he said.

A 2018 regulation from Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries requires fishermen to obtain licenses to sell sharks and establish traceability. However, given the size of Indonesia’s fishing fleet and its workforce of nearly 2.5 million fishermen, unrecorded catches of sharks and rays are common.

Until 2023, only the whale shark (Rhincondon typus) was fully protected by law in Indonesia. All others were considered legitimate prey until the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries introduced full protection for six species of walking sharks, the genus Hemiscyllium.

Fin porridge

Shark meat is increasingly being ground up for soup and stews in prison cafeterias and school kitchens as a cheaper alternative to protein-rich fish like tuna, a trend seen in countries like Brazil that is the subject of a year-long report to be published by Mongabay in the coming weeks.

Okta Tejo Darmono, a researcher at the Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia (FRCI), a think tank, said the shark trade in Indonesia persists mainly because of myths about its health benefits. In China and Hong Kong, the largest markets, shark products are believed to provide health benefits and also serve as a status symbol.

“As long as these superstitions exist, demand will remain high,” Tejo said in an interview in August.

“With constant demand, the fishermen’s supply chain will continue to function,” Tejo added.

Lack of surveillance and enforcement has allowed the shark trade to thrive despite worrying declines in fish stocks, he added. Most ports lack observers to check catches, allowing many undeclared sharks to enter the black market.

Tejo highlighted the port’s critical role in monitoring the shark trade supply chain, as data collection begins there before sharks reach local or global markets.

“Many people still don’t understand the vital role sharks and rays play in marine ecosystems,” he added. “The consequences of their disappearance have not been widely communicated.”

Deep-sea sharks and rays have declined by 71% over the past 50 years due to overfishing pressure, according to a 2021 study published in Nature.

The Rekam Nusantara Foundation, a nonprofit and parent organization of FRCI, estimates that Indonesian fisheries account for 13% of the global shark trade. Data from the country’s fisheries ministry showed annual production of 25,000 to 30,000 tons in the three years to 2021.

Trade data from the Ministry of Fisheries showed that the Indonesian provinces of Bali, Maluku, Papua, Bangka-Belitung and West Papua were the largest suppliers of shark products to Indonesia.

Sharks are caught by both artisanal fishermen and commercial vessels using trawls, gillnets, purse seines, as well as longlines and handlines.

However, changing this supply chain on the ground can be difficult because of the thousands of fishermen, middlemen, retailers and exporters who depend on this trade in areas where government capacity is limited.

Every morning at the port of Brondong on the Java Sea, Sulaiman cuts up hundreds of sharks for their fins and skin.

Research and reporting along the coast shows that the fishing industry is facing a complex crisis amid warming seas and dwindling fish stocks. Sulaiman has been hunting sharks in Brondong for decades, but it is unclear how much longer he will continue to have a job.

Banner image: Remains of a shark and a ray after their fins were removed in Brondong Harbor, East Java. Image by A. Asnawi/Mongabay Indonesia.

This story was reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and first published here on our Indonesian site September 9, 2024.

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