Indonesian Fishing Boats, Gear and the Catch

Indonesian fishing boats and gear work as one connected system. The hull decides how far a crew can go and how much it can carry, the gear decides which fish come aboard, and the landing place decides how the catch is sold and to whom. Read on its own, each part looks like a separate craft. Read together, they explain why a fishing village on one coast looks so different from another on a neighbouring coast.

Taken as one system, the chain runs from the boat to the market. It walks through each stage, says what each part does, shows where the parts depend on one another, and gives a reader a place to go deeper on each piece. The same chain also takes in the rules that have shaped which gear is allowed, the ponds and seaweed farms beside the open sea, and how a visitor can approach all of this without getting in anyone’s way.

Indonesian fishing boats and gear: the hull sets the limits

The boat is the first decision a fisher makes, because it limits everything that follows. A boat that can stay out in rough water can reach fish that a sheltered craft cannot, and a boat that can carry weight can work a heavier net. In the archipelago the two most important hull traditions are the outrigger and the plank-built hull, and the two are often found within a few kilometres of each other.

Outrigger craft and why the float matters

A single narrow hull tips easily. An outrigger, which is a float held to the main hull by spars, adds the width that a narrow hull lacks. The principle is simple. Stability comes mainly from the distance between the hulls, not from the shape of either one, which is why an outrigger can be a light, fast craft and still stay upright. In Indonesia the jukung is one of the small outrigger types that comes up most often when people describe local craft. For the wider family of outrigger designs, see the traditional boat types across the islands page.

The placement of the float is not a small detail. On a cadik boat, setting the outrigger about 2 metres from the side of the vessel significantly reduces the motions that lead to capsizing. A portable outrigger can be moved to improve stability and make better use of deck space. For a reader, the practical lesson is that the outrigger is an adjustable part of the boat, not a fixed fitting, and that the spacing is where a builder’s judgment shows.

Plank-built hulls without metal fastenings

Not every working boat depends on an outrigger. The lashed-lug method builds the hull itself from planks. A dugout canoe forms the base, planks are added along its edges, and the planks are joined through carved lugs on their inner faces. The lugs are drilled and tied with natural fibre such as rattan, coir or palm fibre, so the hull is assembled without metal fastenings. The stitching passes through L-shaped holes cut at the plank edges, which keeps the lashings hidden from the outside of the hull. Seams are sealed with bark, expanding fibres or resin-based paste.

The method is old and widespread across Maritime Southeast Asia, and the oldest surviving examples lie outside Indonesia. Within the archipelago, the Punjulharjo boat from Rembang in Central Java is the best-known example. Later builds moved away from stitching, and dowels replaced lashings from the early second millennium CE. Read the lashed-lug hull building page for the step-by-step build, from keel to end caps.

Gear that matches the water it works

Gear is where the fisher’s knowledge of the water shows most clearly. A trap that suits a reef edge will fail on a sandy flat, and a net that works in a lake may tangle in a coastal current. The gear below is grouped by how it catches fish: passive traps that wait, nets that are thrown or set, and lines worked by hand.

Bubu traps and the funnel that holds the catch

A bubu is a woven fish trap, usually made of bamboo or rattan. Its mouth is wide at the outer edge and narrows toward the inside, so a fish that swims in faces a funnel it cannot easily reverse through. Fishers place bubu along routes the fish already use, which means the trap relies on the fish’s movement rather than on the fisher chasing it. Traps of this kind are used in Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as in several parts of Indonesia, and on uneven reef ground the woven body suits the terrain better than a rigid pot would. Many bubu are left unmarked and found again by lining up shoreline landmarks, which is a practical detail that is easy to miss from the outside. For the build, materials and setting, read the bubu trap page.

Cast nets and the skill of the throw

A cast net is a circular net with small weights spaced around its edge and a handline tied at the centre. The caster drapes the net over one arm, or holds most of it in one hand with the weights hanging at staggered heights, then throws it with both hands in a circle so that it opens on the water. The weighted edge sinks quickly and closes around fish in the net’s radius. The throw works best in water no deeper than the net’s radius and clear of reeds and branches, which snag the net and tear it. The jala tebar, the local Indonesian name for this net, is a productive gear in lake fisheries. On Lake Rawapening in Semarang Regency, the larger of two mesh sizes was the one that kept fish of harvestable size. The cast net fishing page gives the full method.

Purse seine and the net that closes from below

A purse seine is a surrounding net that hangs vertically in the water. Floats run along the top edge, weights run along the bottom, and rings threaded on a purse line sit along the bottom edge. When the crew hauls the purse line, the rings draw together and close the bottom of the net, so that fish schooling near the surface cannot dive beneath it. The method suits fish that gather in dense surface schools, such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel and some tuna, and it works best when the crew reads the school before setting. A purse seine is a large, coordinated operation, and the way the net closes is the key to understanding why it can take a whole school at once. The purse seine fishing page sets out the parts and the working sequence.

Handline for tuna and the value of the bait

Handline fishing uses one line, a hook and bait, worked by hand from a boat. It is a simpler gear than a net, but it is not an easy one. Bait choice and the arrangement of hooks change how many fish a line brings up, and experienced handline crews treat these as variables to test rather than settled habits. Tuna handline work in Indonesia runs from small coastal boats to larger offshore vessels, and it is closely tied to fish aggregating devices in some regions. The handline tuna fishing page describes the gear, bait and typical operating pattern.

Tidal fish fences and passive catches

A tidal fish fence is a passive trap set in the intertidal zone, where the rising and falling water brings fish along a fixed line. The fence does the moving, so the work concentrates on setting, checking and lifting rather than on chasing the catch. That makes fences a good example of how coastal communities adapted to a predictable tide. Passive traps of this kind rarely need a full crew, which is one reason they persist in places where larger boats are hard to afford. The tidal fish fences page explains their layout and function.

Rules that change which gear can be used

Gear choice is shaped by law as well as by skill. The clearest recent example is the cantrang, a seine net that the government moved to restrict over concerns about reefs and seabed life. A 2015 ministerial regulation banned all trawls and seine nets, on the grounds that they damage coral reefs and the seabed ecosystem. The ban was announced with a deadline. In July 2017 the fisheries minister said cantrang operations would stop in December of that year. Fishers protested in Jakarta, and implementation was postponed after the president intervened.

Support was part of the plan. Boats under 10 gross tonnes were to receive replacement fishing equipment prepared by the government, and owners of larger boats were offered loans through state-owned banks. The rules have been revised since, and the revisions have been contested, with fishers and conservation groups disagreeing about what the gear does on the seabed and near the coast. For the full timeline and the arguments on each side, read the cantrang trawl ban page. The lesson for anyone reading about Indonesian fishing is that the gear on the water today may not be the gear allowed next year.

Landing the catch: auction halls and the market

Once a boat is in, the catch needs a buyer. A tempat pelelangan ikan, usually shortened to TPI, is the fish auction place where landed fish are offered. Under the national fisheries regulation, a TPI is a place for marketing fish through an auction mechanism, and the same definition appears in local regional rules. The idea of an auction is that the fish go to the highest bidder in an open, visible process, which gives fishers a reference price and gives buyers a fair chance to bid.

In practice the auction does not always happen as designed. At one auction place in Kupang, catches were sold directly without going through the auction, partly because fishers did not know what the auction was for and had not been given explanation. In Pati Regency, production and infrastructure come first among the management priorities at six auctions, with institutions and human resources close behind. The gap between the written role of a TPI and the way it works on a given morning is where most of the interesting detail lies. The fish auction halls page is the place to read about the purpose, history and common problems of these halls.

Ponds and seaweed: fish and crops raised beside the sea

Not all Indonesian fishing happens on the water. Coastal ponds and seaweed farms are part of the same economy, and they sit close to the boats and markets described above.

Brackish-water fish ponds

A tambak is an artificial pond, usually on the coast, filled with brackish or seawater and used for aquaculture. Freshwater ponds are usually called kolam or empang instead. Ponds are built in three water systems. In a simple system the intake and drainage channels are not separated, so fresh and seawater mix naturally. A semi-technical system uses dedicated channels that mix seawater and freshwater in a planned way, which lets farmers control salinity. A technical system separates the channels and plots by function. Fish, shrimp and shellfish are the usual animals, and a pond can alternate between shrimp and milkfish by season. The brackish-water fish ponds page explains the layout, water control and species.

Carrageenan from red seaweed

Carrageenan is a gelling and thickening agent taken from red seaweeds. The species Kappaphycus alvarezii is a source of kappa carrageenan, and in Indonesia its main production areas lie in Sulawesi and Bali. Indonesia is among the world’s largest carrageenan producers, alongside the Philippines. The seaweed is grown on the fixed off-bottom monoline method, in which wooden stakes are driven into the substrate, a nylon monoline is stretched between them, and cuttings are tied to the line at regular intervals. Extraction uses hot alkali, followed by filtering, concentration, drying and grinding. The three main types behave differently. Kappa carrageenan forms firm gels in the presence of potassium, iota forms soft gels with calcium, and lambda does not gel and is used mainly to thicken dairy products. Process and uses are the subject of the carrageenan from seaweed page.

Hari Nelayan and the people behind the work

Hari Nelayan, the national fishermen’s day, falls on 6 April each year. It is a moment to recognise the people who work the boats, gear, auction halls and ponds described above. For a visitor, the day is a good reason to ask about local fishing communities, but the fishing year itself does not revolve around it. The Hari Nelayan page on 6 April explains the date and purpose of the day.

How the parts connect and where to start

The fastest way into the subject depends on your purpose. If you are reading for a trip, start with what you can see from the shore: boats drawn up on the beach, a landing point with a catch being sorted, and a pond along the coast. If you are reading to understand a fishery, start with the gear, because the gear decides the boat size and the crew, and the crew decides where the catch is landed. If you are reading about rules, start with the cantrang history, because it shows how a single regulation can reshape a whole fleet within a few years.

The links between the parts also work in the other direction. A boat built for a sheltered lagoon will not be the right boat for an exposed reef edge. A trap that suits a tidal shore will not help a crew working tuna. A landing place that handles one kind of catch may not handle another. That is why the parts are best read together. Each part answers its own question, and taken together the answers show how the parts fit.

Practical notes for visitors

• Ask before photographing crews, boats in use or the sorting of a catch. Fishing work is the livelihood of the people involved, and a polite question usually gets a warmer answer than a camera raised without one.
• Landings are easiest to see early in the working day, when boats return and the catch is still being sorted. Plan around the tide, because fishing and pond work follow it closely.
• Treat ponds and the land around them as working property. A pond wall or sluice is part of someone’s livelihood, not a viewpoint.
• Check the current rules before recommending or buying any particular gear or catch. The cantrang history shows that the rules can change faster than a printed guide.
• Expect the markets to be busy and informal. The most useful thing a visitor can bring is patience and a willingness to watch before asking.

For the wider context of these crafts and traditions, see the Indonesian culture hub. Taken together, the boats, gear, halls and ponds show how Indonesian coastal communities have turned a long coastline and many kinds of water into a working set of skills. Start with whichever part interests you most, then see where it meets the next.