Thresher shark season in Bali. The slaughter begins again !

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Whooo :(

Have read the previous report on Nusa Penida last year. Sad to hear about the Tulamben area now.

Update from Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Penida sister island where the 4500 Thresher sharks are slaughtered each season : not so much has been done in the past 6 months when Sampalan is just 10km away ... I will personally spend time there during the slaughter season to try to investigate.
 
Hi Zivva,

This is from the same people as the last report.
They are trying to collect as much info as possible on shark sightings while diving, check their website for the survey.
Also any info on shark fishing around Bali is needed.
We also see mantas, devil rays, mola mola and even dolphins caught mainly as by-catch in nets around east Bali.
If you go to Penida or Kusamba be sure to get as many photos and accurate info such as date, time, location, species, sex and size if possible.
I agree it is very surprising this is happening only a few km from a major tourist location in Bali. Very sad that no concrete action has happened since the first report came out in October last year.
 
Hi,

Unfortunately the website seems kind of messy : I've got an error message in spanish when filling the petition form (and no way to correct anything) and the survey link is just a blank page as much of the links.

Do you have any contact from this organization ?

I can provide them a proper website including good SEO for free, cause at this point this website clearly does not help to build awareness about this and it may be one of the key to make people moving forward.

I'll be also glad to get photos & infos about the by-catch nets issue you have around East Bali or you can contact directly the guys at Aquatic Alliance (see my post on sharks & rays fishing around Nusa Penida & Lombok : http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/indonesia/419836-daily-manta-rays-shark-fishing-lombok.html).

Thanks for bringing attention to this anyway.

When I'll get to Penida for the fishing season, I'll bring the camera (and will try not to throw up every 30 seconds ...)
 
Zivva,

Any help would be great !

There have been many promises in the past, but up until now there are only a few private individuals using up all their time and money on this at the moment.

The web site is still under construction.

threshersharkbali@yahoo.com

is the contact address.
 
I agree it is very surprising this is happening only a few km from a major tourist location in Bali. Very sad that no concrete action has happened since the first report came out in October last year.

This seems to be Indonesia's dirty little secret. Tourists go here, but we hide disgusting fish kills right around the corner. All sorts of new images are pouring out of east Lombok and east Flores of piles of dead sharks, dead mantas, etc... Meanwhile the west sides of the islands are packed with "eco tourists" visiting the Gilis, Lebuan Bajo, to dive, see the dragons, etc... I think the pictures on Facebook from Lombok say it all

Maybe it is time to start discussing campaigns to embargo Indonesia's tourism centers until officials step up and say enough with the shark fins and manta gills.

I'm know, of course, that is far too simple a solution. I am just ticked off.
 
Ok, I have contacted the guy to offer him my services.

Matts1w : I'm really not sure embargo would be a proper solution, It would just make the fishermen and local communities even more desperate.

Indonesian government is the responsible here as they do not distribute tourism $$$ they get from tourism (including scuba diving) operators.

You just have to get to Nusa Penida from its sister island Nusa Lembongan to see a huge difference between the locals way of life between the 2 islands only separated by a 200 meters wide straigt. Nusa Penida attracts tons of divers and snorkelers every year in search for nice drift dives, Mantas & Mola Mola, meanwhile people from the island got nothing from this ! This is truelly unbelievable !

Obviously tourists that came to Nusa Lembongan don't know about what is happening just 10 kilometers away from their hotels or a few hundreds meter away from the dive spots. This is our little secret here in Nusa Lembongan. I may be the only instructor / guide talking about this every day when giving my briefings : "We don't have much sharks here, you may see a few of them if you're lucky on the north side, but thousands of them are just fished for their fins". Obviously the guests are not happy with this and most of the time can't believe it untill I show them the Bali Advertizer article ...

When I say that not so much has been done in the past 6 months since the article has been released, this is the kind of small talk I have had with the dive operators 10 kilometers away from where the slaughters take place (the same operators that are making $$$ on a daily basis bringing their guests to Nusa Penida) : "it's complicated you know, it's happening between Penida and Lombok, it involves different cultures" or "we have talked about it to the Coral Triangle Center, they are in charge".

So, because this is government and tourists operators little secret, I guess the best way to make a change would be to make this more and more public. When a lot of people will start to complain, may be those guys will start to do something about it instead of waiting and telling that is just a matter of time.

I love this island, I love the way the different dive operators work together but honestly I hate them for just doing nothing about this nightmare.
 
Matts1w : I'm really not sure embargo would be a proper solution, It would just make the fishermen and local communities even more desperate.

Lets be honest, most of the money from diving and tourism goes to the expat owners, not local communities who remain desperate depspite beautiful villas built nearby. However, the many locals are employed and the expat money does trickle down...to an extent. Many issues in in Jakarta get solved at a "local level." I just figured if it were very clear why the money was disappearing from the Gilis, the new airport, Sengeggi, etc... the West Lombok locals might pay the east coast villages a visit. Same is true with Sanur locals and Lembogan. I know that is a backassward way of thinking, but just trying to start some ideas.
 
Lets be honest, most of the money from diving and tourism goes to the expat owners, not local communities who remain desperate depspite beautiful villas built nearby. However, the many locals are employed and the expat money does trickle down...to an extent.

I'm not sure about how the money flows in Indo but if it's anywhere like what I've seen in other SE ASian countries, there's not that much profit in diving. I can think of a couple of big operations in the Phils and sure, the owner is comfortable but is still saving up for his first porsche.

The massive corruption on a national level and the millions of dollars which get funneled away through shady business deals and govt incompetence would be more of a concern IMO.
 
After some years living in Indonesia, I'm not really sure that always local populations are "desperate". It's true that there is still some poverty around, but Indonesia is a growing country with lot of possibilities for locals.
My feeling - even if I'm not a sociologist - is that's mainly a lack of ecological culture and an education issue. It's easily observable the local attitude only when we organize a beach cleaning, most of them just sit down laughing because collecting garbage is low-level job, and we are just "crazy bule". The same for fishermen, for them concept like "extinction" make totally no sense, the sea is still of fishes and if they can get money for that, it's ok. So the key is start educating people.

It's sad to say that local government it's trapped into corruption issues, waste of money, some laziness as well. And Indonesia is so big that a complete control would be very difficult in every case.
 

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