For many people, thoughts of fisheries brings to mind images of industrial fleets with sophisticated boats and gear. However, another side of fishing that is rarely seen in many parts of the world is the focus of work by Eny Buchary who is a current PhD candidate working with Dr. Tony Pitcher of the Policy and Ecosystem Restoration in Fisheries (PERF) group at the UBCFisheries Centre.

Eny describes the video, which she believes to be the only one documenting this particular fishery saying:

“[t]his video clip shows crew members of “Sumber Jaya”, a pair-boat purse seine (called “Slerek”), hauling sardine in the Bali Strait, Indonesia. The fishing activity occurred during the night of September 22, 2004, from about 7PM to 4:30AM. The fleet had 48 crew members, including the skipper/captain (who sat on the ‘high bench’). My two assistants and I were invited by the fleet owner to participate in the fishing activity as observers. We were on the ‘fish boat’ throughout the night. In this clip, my camera was pointing towards the ‘net boat’. Listen to the crew members sang – in a cappella – interlocking notes as they hauled the net.”

You can learn more about Eny Buchary and her PhD research work, of which this video is a part, by visiting her homepage. More about the fishery pictured in the clip above will appear in Eny’s PhD dissertation titled In search of viable policy options for responsible use of sardine resources in the Bali Strait, which she will defend in February of this year. The citation for her dissertation is:

Buchary, E. in press. In search of viable policy options for responsible use of sardine resources in the Bali Strait, Indonesia. PhD dissertation. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 350p. Unpublished (to be defended in February 2010).