Study on the use of wooden materials for fishing boats in several shipyards around Lolak District

Indonesia is an archipelago country with approximately two-thirds of its territory consisting of oceans, so that in inter­islands transportation has  become  one  of  the  most  important economic aspects.  The traditional wooden boat is commonly used by local people in the coastal areas  for  transportation and for fishing  to   support   their   needs. Several   wood species which have high durability are commonly used for making wooden fishing boat such as Vitex gofasus (gopasa) Eusideroxylon zwageri  (ulin), Tectona  grandis  (teak), and  Instia  bijuga  (merbau). Our purpose to determine  the alternative materials for wooden fishing boat based on inventory at the shipyards at Lolak district of the Bolaang Mongondow Regency. Exploring the alternative materials for wooden fishing boat is important to optimize  the utilization, to know the kinds of the timbers and address the problem of decreasing supply of major commercial timbers. Furthermore we identified many wood species used by coastal fishermen for making wooden fishing boat. Identification of wood species was carried out using observation methods, while the determination of alternative materials was undertaken through wood   properties   approach. The results show that there were various wood species used as raw materials for fishing boat components and more than 10 species of the wooden materials have been found at shipyards around Lolak district. We thought several alternative wood species to substitute current materials are should be elaborated in the paper