As a fisheries biologist in Indonesia, Andhika Prasetyo connects with fishers by accompanying them on their voyages out to sea. He can always tell from their faces whether the day’s fishing is going well: if there are smiles, the catch will be good.
“When I see [the fishers] happy, I wish that they could always feel that way,” Andhika, an associate researcher at Indonesia’s Center for Fisheries Research and a doctoral candidate at the University of Salford in the U.K., told Mongabay.
But managing the balance between ample catches and long-term sustainability is a challenge. Fisheries authorities often struggle to keep track of where fish are caught across Indonesia’s vast archipelago and to trace their subsequent trade in domestic and international markets.
The complexities of shark and ray fisheries and their subsequent impacts on struggling populations is a particularly tricky area, according to Andhika. He recently led a study, published in Marine Policy, that identifies where improvements should be made to strengthen the regulation of such fisheries.
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