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Anecdotal testimony from fishers Mongabay Indonesia spoke with suggests income growth resulting from the policy has outpaced the regional minimum wage. The Bajo are itinerant mariners hailing from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Venetian explorer Antonio Pigafetta documented the diffuse group of sailors in the early 16th century. Five centuries later, Hollywood directorcentury, the Dutch colonial government in what is now Indonesia corralled Bajo seafarers into a newly created village called Toro Siajeku. That community today is known as Torosiaje, home to Moji Tiok and more than 250 other Bajo octopus hunters.
Research published in 2020 showed fisheries accounted for almost the entire Bajo economy. In Torosiaje village, 86.6% of the population worked as fishers.across three Bajo villages surveyed by the research team, suggesting adequate nutrition and the ability to pay for health and education are tied inexorably to the fate of the community’s fishery.
The Natural Resources Management Advocacy Network , an NGO based in Gorontalo, has assisted the Bajo people in drafting sustainability policy since 2021. Jalipati Tuheteru, Japesda’s field manager in Torosiaje, said the organization needed around a year to win hearts and minds in the community. The greatest catch at that time was a heavyweight tipping the scales at 4.2 kg . It was the largest octopus seen here in more than a decade.
“I managed to catch one at 2 kilograms ,” Abdul said. “Before there was an open-and-close system, the octopuses we caught only weighed 0.3-0.9 kilograms .”Gusnar Lubis Ismail, a researcher from the Indonesian Marine Scholars Association , said the new rules also help protect coral reefs and seagrasses, in addition to shoring up incomes in the Torosiaje community.