Trailing the Effectiveness of a Modified Trawl Net in the Northern Java Sea, Indonesia

Overfishing has occurred in several regions around Indonesia, including the Northern Java Sea, primarily due to the large number of artisanal fishers and fishing boats, and the use of "un-environmentally friendly fishing gear", such as trawl nets. Consequently, Presidential Decree No.39 was enacted on July 1, 1980, which prohibited trawl operations in Indonesia to reduce fishing and social conflicts, and to protect resources. Fishers have responded to this government regulation by modifying their gear to elude its enforcement. However, these modifications are oriented more economic than conservation benefits. To rectify this issue, an environmentally-frendly trawl net that enables resource conservation needs to be developed and authorized. Therefore, in this study, a modified trawl net that included a flapper, selector, and square mesh was trialed and compared with a conventional trawl net following the experimental design. It was found that the modified trawl net has the potential to contribute to fishery resource preservation with no associated economic loss to fishers