In the beginning, exploitation of reef fish was intended primarily to fulfi l local consumption. However, with increasing demand for live reef fi sh for food (LRFF) in Asian restaurants, especially in Hong Kong, the exploitation of live reef fish has became a global concern (Lau and Parry-Jones, 1999, Petersen et al., 2004).
Indonesia has been one of the major exporting countries of live fi sh since 1993; and it is predicted that the country will continue to play a major role in supplying the product to the international market in the years to come. The international trade of reef fi sh from Indonesia is mostly concentrated on some species of groupers (Serranidae, especially Cromileptes altivelis and species of Plectropomus and Epinephelus) and Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulates),
with recorded prices ranging from US$2 to US$35 per kg. Some overseas customers are often willing to pay up to hundreds of dollars per kg (Mous et al., 2000). With such a wide range in price, the Indonesian LRFF trade has been a lucrative business for Indonesian fi shers with the result of increasing of fi sh production from Indonesian waters.
During the last decade, the production of Indonesian live reef fish, especially wild caught groupers, has shown a signifi cant increase (Figure 1). In 1990, the production of wild caught groupers was estimated to be 16 000 metric tonnes. In the year 2000, production had increased to 48 500 metric tonnes which is a three-fold increase (Pet-Soede et al., 2004). The major contributors of the capture of wild caught groupers are Sumatera (also known as Sumatra) (38%) and Sulawesi (22%). Even though there are no quantifi able data on the production of farmedgroupers, there is a strong indication that production of these fish has also been increasing slightly (Pet-Soede et al., 2004)
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