 |
|
|
 |
|
 | In the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province of Indonesia , where 42,000 fishers and their families live, 70 percent of the small-scale fishing fleet were been destroyed or damaged beyond repair by the force of the tsunami. In Nias Island , about 800 fishing canoes have been destroyed or swept out to sea and lost.
Two thirds of local fisherfolk from the capital Banda Aceh were killed by the waves. Almost all the boat builders in the Province were concentrated in the coastal suburbs of the capital. Less than 10% survived the tsunami.
Fish farming was severely affected in northern Sumatra with about 1,000 fish cage farms having been completely destroyed. White bait net platforms were the hardest hit with the total number that survived on the West coast in single digits.
Pulau Raya was the center of the white bait industry for the NW coast before the tsunami with over 100 large floating structures in production. Each platform supported between 3 and 5 families depending on ownership. Many were owned by traders living in the towns that were near the coast. Almost all these traders and their families were killed by the tsunami and so the capital needed to maintain and operate the platforms has been lost. This comes on top of the physical destruction. At Pulau Raya only one fish platform survived in serviceable condition and it has since been destroyed in a storm.
|
|
|
|
|
| Typical log supported white-bait platform at Pulau Raya. At night, two or more petromax pressure lamps are slung under the hut in the center of the net. The light attracts the juvenile fish and the net is then raised by using the large Spanish windlass on the right side of the platform. The net can be reset up to 3 times per night. Island Aid has supplied complete rope and net sets to 10 fish platform owners along with pressure lamps and iceboxes.
|
|
|
|
|
| Fishermen, their families and others in their communities, live close to the ocean and share generations of knowledge and experience that covers a multitude of ways to harvest and make a living from the sea. It is difficult to imagine how deeply the Boxing Day mega tsunami has shaken the foundations of their maritime traditions. This massive seismic phenomenon destroyed the work of several generations in a few minutes. Entire villages were obliterated by 100ft walls of water leaving a landscape that resembles the aftermath of an atomic blast. In the space of a few minutes busy markets, shops, mosques and thousands of homes were destroyed beyond recognition. Some towns are now lost to the sea forever and others are now doomed to wave encroachment or flooding. Rivers have changed their course and are choked with debris and no longer navigable. Prime farmland on alluvial river deltas is now salt marsh, rice paddies kilometers inland have either had their top soil scoured clean or been buried under tons of beach sand. Fruit and valuable timber trees cultivated for generations lie in giant tangled windrows that still hide the remains of families and loved ones. The entire landscape has been transformed. The Aceh coastline was widely acknowledged as the most naturally beautiful and scenic in all of Indonesia. It now defies description. Collin Powell was stunned by the destruction and said it was beyond anything he had seen in a warzone. It will take decades to replant the tree cover and much of the farmland will remain a wasteland beyond rehabilitation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This Japanese study shows the dramatic difference between the tsunami's impact on the North and East coast compared to the NW Aceh coast.
|
|
|
|
|
|  |
The NW Aceh coastline has few natural harbors and no barrier islands to protect if from the Indian Ocean swell. Heavy surf breaks along miles of sand beaches with rocky headlands and rive-mouths affording the only safe landing places. Many are dangerous and can not be accessed for days or even weeks during the high swell season. Those that are safe during all seasons are few and far between and they all attracted substantial fisher populations. The construction of the coastal highway 15 years ago transformed life along the entire coast. A large percentage of inland villages were accessible only by river and after the road opened many residents relocated to the coast to share in the commerce that the road bought to the area. New townships sprung up close to the beaches and the fishing villages already in place grew rapidly as distant markets were suddenly available. Government institutions and infrastructure followed and the coastal towns experienced a building boom. Inland villages were largely abandoned and those that did remain would travel to the coast to market goods and to trade. Sadly the tsunami struck on a busy market morning resulting in great loss of life among inland communities.
Image - © Jason Childs 2005
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| The demand for timber for the reconstruction of the infrastructure and housing wiped clean by the tsunami or damaged severely by the mega quakes, has co-incided with a nationwide clamp down on illegal logging. Since legal logging has only attracted investors wanting the huge profits available from co-existing illegal log exports, the effect has been to almost completely shut down the domestic timber industry.
Timber prices have risen dramatically and continue to rise to the point where imported timber is being seriously considered for reconstruction projects in Aceh and Nias. Boat builders in the area are also finding it impossible to obtain "legal" timber because the companies that did hold licenses were wiped out by the tsunami. Traditional logging requires the transport of 20x30cm blocks by river and all of the large rivers in the area are blocked by debris or sediment. Sawmilling machinery was wiped out as most timber yards were near the coast and on rivers hardest hit by the tsunamis. Other local materials used in boatbuilding are no longer accessible. Roads have been destroyed, transport is expensive and ownership issues cause conflicts when fishermen try to harvest surviving bamboo or coastal timbers that were once abundant and near at hand.
|
|
|
|
|
| These salvaged timber blocks were being collected in the Lho Kruet area and towed 20km to Lamnoh to sell to the only sawmill in the area. Fishermen are generally enterprising but after the supply of salvaged timber is gone, a few will have made some money but the area will have to repurchase sawn timber from the mill and transport it back to their village to build boats or housing.
|
|
|
|
|
| Pulau Raya whitebait platform remains washed almost one km inland. This is the less common planked catamaran type of platform. Most platforms used logs of low density trees.
|
|
|
|
|
| The decimation of existing boat building capacity and the lack of availability of raw materials means that the rehabilitation process will take a long time during which prices for boats will increase, perhaps dramatically, as the normal operation of micro-economics of demand and supply work themselves out. With all other factors remaining equal (which inevitably work to the disadvantage of the poorer fisherman), the poorest of the fishermen will be further disadvantaged because they will not have the necessary funds to rebuild their livelihoods.
|
|
|
|
|
| Island Aid Fisheries Support to Date:
13 fishing boats that survived or were repaired after the tsunami were given PE ice boxes for storing their catch. Over 200 boats were lost in the 10km stretch of coast from Patek to Lho Kruet and only 2 men with boat building experience survived in the area (population 12,000 post tsunami)
|
|
|
|
|
| Fishermen discuss the first days catch with Island Aid volunteers. We supplied 39 fishermen with complete kits of nets, lines, floats, sinkers, hooks and ropes.
|
|
|
|
|
| In conjunction with Sam Schultz, Island Aid has assisted with the delivery of 7 small planked inboard fishing boats to the Babah Nipah area in NW Aceh. Ice boxes, freezers, generators, and communications equipment have been housed in a simple timber framed building in the village. The location is home to the only 2 surviving boatbuilders on this stretch of the coast. All boats were fully equipped with nets, lines, tackle and simple navigation aids.
|
|
|
|
|
| A common sight along the Aceh coast. Marine engines and outboards were generally lost or destroyed in even greater numbers than boat hulls.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
