The impact of fishermen’s conflict on the sustainability of crab (Portunus pelagicus) resources in the coastal areas of Maros District, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Daris L, Massiseng ANA, Fachry ME, Jaya, Zaenab ST. 2022. The impact of fishermen’s conflict on the sustainability of crab (Portunus pelagicus) resources in the coastal areas of Maros District, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 5278-5289. Using environmentally unfriendly fishing gear causes damage to coral reefs and seagrass, which are the habitat of crabs. The prohibition on using ecologically unfriendly fishing gear, such as mini trawl, in catching crabs and shrimps in the coastal area of ??Maros District, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, has triggered horizontal conflicts between traditional fishermen from 1985 until now. This study aims to identify the types of fishing conflicts and analyze the distribution of conflict areas and the maximum fishing rate that could threaten the sustainability of crab (Portunus pelagicus) resources. This research was conducted from February to July 2022 in the coastal area of ??Maros, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The type of data is primary and secondary data. The data collection methods used in this study were observation, interviews, and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). The analysis data used qualitative by reducing and presenting data obtained from observations, interviews, and PRA, as well as spatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to describe the distribution map of fishermen's conflicts. The results showed that the types of conflicts between fishermen using crab resources were agrarian conflicts, technological conflicts, and perception conflicts between fishermen using trammel nets and traps and fishermen using mini trawls. Conflicts between fishermen in resource utilization crabs occur between ??2.71-3.26 km from the coast during dark moons and 2.17-3.26 km during bright moons. Fishing conflicts have an impact on decreasing crab catches from 2015 until 2021, where the fishing effort (trip) has exceeded the sustainable fishing effort (MSY) by 690 trips/year with a total catch of 1232.3 tons/year.