“Once We Searched, Now We Steal”: Shifts in Strategy and Technique among Traditional Fishers on the Island of Rote

“Once We Searched, Now We Steal”: Shifts in Strategy and Technique among Traditional Fishers on the Island of Rote

G. Tom Therik (Australian National University)

This paper examines the changing strategies and fishing techniques of the so-called illegal fishers who operate inside Australian waters. Asking a Bajo or Rotenese fisher about these changes, one would hear a common reply: Dahulu kami mencari, sekarang kami mencuri: “Once we searched, now we steal”. Compared to the old ways of using perahu lambo for fishing in Australian waters that take months of fishing time, the current use of small power boats of two meters width and six meters length for four or five days – even though this carries a greater risk of loss of life – is believed to be an effective way of avoiding the surveillance of Australian patrols.

Information gathered for this paper derives from two years’ experience working together with fishers on the island of Rote as part of the ANU’s efforts to establish alternative forms of livelihood for the traditional fishers who are legally and illegally visiting the Australian Fishing Zone to harvest a range of marine products for commercial purposes. Thus the paper also deals with collaboration efforts made by ANU researchers, local government officials at the district level and members of a local NGO to promote alternative livelihood projects.