Vanessa Jaiteh
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| With Prime Minister Julia Gillard at ceremony to receive Prime Minister's Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate Award.The Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Outgoing Postgraduate Award provides financial support for Australian postgraduate students to undertake study or research in Asia towards their Australian postgraduate qualification. |
Born and raised in Switzerland, I left the land-locked country in 2006 to study marine biology and have since lived, studied and worked in Australia. Closely fitting the profile of the stereotypical female marine biologist (but first blind, and then indifferent to the fact), I had a deep fascination with dolphins. I came to Murdoch University to do an Honours project on dolphin bycatch in the Pilbara Fish Trawl Fishery. During my Honours year, I developed a keen interest in the effects of the worldwide decline of fish stocks on coastal communities in developing countries, where a large number of people heavily rely on marine resources to make a living, and to survive. Combined with an interest in the impacts of anthropogenic activity – particularly fishing – on populations of apex predators, I developed ideas for an interdisciplinary PhD project which I am now undertaking through the Asia Research Centre and the Centre of Fish, Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems Research at Murdoch University.
The project is an investigation of the East Indonesian shark fishery on the community level. My aim is to investigate the interconnectedness of sharks as a group of keystone species fulfilling critical roles as apex predators in marine food chains, and groups of people who depend on sharks - often large, slow-breeding species that are vulnerable to unregulated exploitation – and their fins as a livelihood.
Specifically, my aim is to identify possible trade-offs between a number of planned shark management/conservation initiatives and their impact on livelihood security and community welfare in remote shark fishing communities. The basis for the project will be
1) an initial assessment of the shark populations in a small number of representative East Indonesian fishing grounds using baited remote underwater video (BRUV) footage, and
2) an assessment of ecosystem awareness, (shark) fishing traditions and livelihood requirements in the fishing communities exploiting those fishing grounds. In doing so, I hope to contribute to interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research that works towards a better understanding of social factors affecting a fishery which is both highly active and increasingly contested on a global level.
As a result of overfishing throughout their range – mostly for the Chinese shark fin market - shark populations are in concerning decline worldwide. Their conservation has become increasingly important on many governments’ and NGOs’ environmental agendas. Indonesia is the world’s leading harvester of elasmobranchs (sharks, rays and skates), but a legal framework for managing elasmobranch populations within its waters has not yet been established. Despite the high price of shark fins and the risks associated with shark fishing, small-scale fishers often remain poor. Remote rural fishing communities are in danger of suffering livelihood loss as a result of declining marine resources, but also through management decisions which are often based on biological data alone, and therefore do not take into account the needs and views of local fishers as stakeholders. As a result of such decisions, many conservation initiatives in the developing world have not brought about the reduction in poverty often assumed to accompany ecosystem protection.
Through consulting fishing communities in a careful examination of their current situation as shark fishers and by engaging them in exploring options for alternative livelihoods, I seek to identify factors that are essential to socially and economically acceptable shark management in regions of high dependence on marine resources. Ultimately, I hope to be able to contribute recommendations for effective shark management strategies that have a strong potential for both protecting shark populations and preventing poverty in shark fishing communities of Eastern Indonesia.
This project is supervised by Ass. Prof. Carol Warren (Asia Research Centre) and Prof. Neil Loneragan (Director, Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research).
Postgraduate Researcher, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150. Fax: 9360 6381
