Indonesia Should Reinforce Fish Seeding Development: Expert

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesia should strengthen its fish seed development as it has become very weak due to its impatience in fish seed development, a marine expert said.

"We are weak in fish seeds because we are often impatient in the development of fisheries," Prof Widi Agoes Pratikto, the executive director of the Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), told a discussion on marine and fisheries here Saturday.

There are two countries which are great in the development of fish seeds, namely Iran and Turkey, he said.

They are great in the development of fish seeds because they do not want to be dictated to by advanced countries in this regard.

For this purpose, officials in charge of this sector should become more active in developing communications and building networks with various parties, he said.

The key lies in human resources. If the population is big but it only becomes a burden then it is useless, he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Halim, the secretary general of the People's Coalition for Fishery Justice (Kiara) acknowledged that restocking of fish is something important but its implementation should be periodically checked.

"Restocking of fish is good as long as the species of fish released are local species and its stock is checked periodically," he said.

The periodic checking will depend on the species of fish released because some fish species grow in a year while others need more than a year.

The government should activate fish restocking in an effort to support the sustainability of fish, Director General for Cultured Fish Affairs of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Slamet Soebjakto said.

"Based on the directives given by the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti, cultured fish activities should not cause damage to the environment and it should support sustainability. Restocking is an effort to materialize the policy," he said.

In 2016 the fish seeding activities would be focused on producing quality fish seeds for the need of restocking in fish natural habitat, Slamet said.

"The target of cultured fish production in 2016 is set at 19.5 million tons, which is expected to need some 101 billion fish seeds," he said. (WDY)