An Ohio University professor and graduate student released a film in November that shares Indonesia's growing destructive fishing crisis with American students.
Southeast Asian Studies Director Gene Ammarell, 62, worked on location with then-graduate student Amelia Hapsari to produce Sharing Paradise - a look into the destruction of Indonesia's coral reefs and fishing supply from the perspective of Balobaloang village locals. The film will be shown in classrooms nationwide.
(Destructive fishing) is cutting down the rainforest
but you can't see it from an airplane so it's insidious in that sense Ammarell said. People don't know it's going on unless they're close.
Ammarell completed the project during his 2003-04 sabbatical leave with funding from Fulbright and OU. Hapsari, an Indonesia native, shot and edited the film on location over the course of four months in 2004 for her master's telecommunications project.
Lauri Hlavacs, 31, is an OU doctorate student who studied destructive fishing under Ammarell's guidance for her master's project last year.
It's not just a local problem. It's not just Indonesia
Hlavacs said. The problem is worldwide.
Fishing is a multi-billion dollar industry across Indonesia's coastlines. However, unpolluted villages like Balobaloang, which comprises three small islands in the South Sulawesi province, are often the targets of exploitive fishing.
According to the World Resources Institute, destructive fishing has impacted more than 53 percent of Indonesia's coral reefs.
Hlavacs used satellite imagery to compare the conditions and availability of coral reefs near some of Indonesia's islands between 1991 and 2006. She observed firsthand the difference blast fishing has made since the original images were taken.
You read about it before you go there
but actually seeing it was shocking
she said.
Cyanide fishermen spray the poisonous chemical in the crevices of coral reefs where valuable fish can be found. Blast fishermen generally use homemade plastic bottle explosives to knock fish unconscious from under water. In both scenarios, fish are gathered and sold at markets and expensive restaurants worldwide.
Although exploitive fishing is now illegal in Indonesia, corrupt local officials let the underground industry stay afloat. The practices are so prominent that many affected citizens have been helpless in confronting those responsible, Ammarell said.
Ammarell said that although using just one method near coral reefs might not permanently eradicate them, when fishermen combine cyanide with explosives, reefs basically turn into sand. Fish born into the reefs usually cannot reproduce once the reefs are destroyed, which causes the population to shrink.
In the end
of course
they kill the goose that lays the golden egg
Ammarell said.
Capturing those involved has not been an easy feat for small, struggling police departments.
It's an ocean out there; it's hard to find people
he said. It's hard to prove anything because by the time the boat pulls up people throw the evidence overboard.
Ammarell said that affected locals were relieved to have Ammarell and Hapsari take on the film project because they had felt very alone with their problem until that point.
The filming and research resulted in at least two police interceptions so far, and Ammarell said the seizures have been slowly increasing in effectiveness ever since.
(The film has) contributed to a broader conversation in Indonesia about the need to conserve the reefs and to deal with corruption
he said.
Sharing Paradise is now being shown in college classrooms nationwide and can be previewed and ordered online at http://www.der.org/films/sharing-paradise.html.
