Photo retrieved from news.mongabay.com
A white coastal beacon stood in place against the surf as gales hurtled across the Indian Ocean here off South Pagai, one of the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. When conditions subside, fishers like Sutrisno Madogaho will make their way to the beach, untie their boats and, armed with spears and hooks, begin searching for octopus — a traditional vocation that today faces a crisis.
“In the past, right here we could get 80 kilos [176 pounds] in one day,” Sutrisno told Mongabay Indonesia. But the days of record catches are gone.
In the years since Sutrisno began earning a living from catching octopus, the 32-year-old has seen the average dockside price he receives for the cephalopods increase by an order of magnitude, from around 4,000 rupiah (26 U.S. cents) per kilo (about 12 cents per pound) to more than 10 times that today, spurred in part by rising demand in countries like the U.S. and Europe.
“Octopus is becoming increasingly popular in several markets, but there are issues with supply,” according to the most recent update from Globefish, an information service published by the Food and Agriculture Organization, a U.N. agency.
“There has been a decline in catches in recent years, with limited availability pushing prices up.”
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Healthy maintenance of Sinaka’s artisanal octopus fishery is likely vital in other fundamental ways.
Almost a third of children in the Mentawai Islands qualified as stunted in 2022, according to Indonesia’s annual nutrition report.
Research published in January this year in the journalNature Food showed that sustainable artisanal octopus fisheries can provide crucial micronutrients for children, supporting wider government efforts to reduce child stunting.
“Just a small serving of something very, very micronutrient rich, like octopus, can fill critical nutritional gaps,” study lead author David Willer, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, said in a statement.
“And, of course, if you get better nutrition as a child you’re much more physically and mentally prepared for later life, which can lead to better jobs, better employment and better social development.”
Sutrisno has spent his adult life setting out to sea. He takes a break only during the galoro, the storm season.