Two pygmy blue whale publications and an erratum

It’s been a while since I visited this blog. After five years of hiatus, I am happy to report that at the moment I have a fixed term contract work with the James Cook University (.5 FTE) and hopefully another one (which completes it to 1.0 FTE) will be coming early next year. 

Anyway, the purpose of this blogpost is to update you on my publications. My ORCID page is this one and SCOPUS page is this one. My two latest publications are about pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) – accidentally also two individuals. One publication is a Note on Marine Mammal Science titled “The first record of the southbound movements of satellite-tagged pygmy blue whales (B. m. brevicauda) from Savu Sea (Indonesia) to the subantarctic waters” (Mustika et al. 2024). The paper received quite a good Altimetric; 31 as I wrote this article.

Updates 2020-2019

Yes, been quite busy, but thank God, I'm still alive and healthy. The best way to update what I've been doing is through this infographic, which I hope sufficiently tells what I've been doing. Got some good publications too, thanks to my co-authors; seven in 2020 and two confirmed in 2021 (hoping for the 3rd one soon, fingers crossed).

Stay happy and healthy, everyone!

Update of first semester of 2019

This is Kiluan Bay (Lampung, Sumatra). Gorgeous beyond words...

Justin my new friend kindly advised me to update my blog (“cos it’s awesome!”), so I blushingly agreed. Thank you for the reminder!

So here it is: I’ve been updating a subject on policy analysis at the James Cook University to be taken to masters level for next semester. (“oh, you do policy, Icha?” Apparently, I do… particularly when you think that environmental issues are not going to solve themselves without proper policies in place!).

In March, CETASI (Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia) received some funding from the Conservation Strategy Fund (thank you, CSF!) for conducting an economic study of dolphin watching in Kiluan (Lampung, Sumatra). The project is titled “Dolphin-watching tourism as an alternative or supplemental livelihood to marginalised artisanal fishers in Indonesia". This project will explore whether dolphin-watching tourism can generate direct or indirect employment that provides a sustainable income equal or superior to a fisheries income. The CSF grant established myself as one of the 2019-2020 Indonesia Marine Fellows of the Conservation Strategy Fund.

The 2018 updates

OMG, I have apparently missed the whole 2018 for any updates!

This book has my chapter!

I’m still alive (and healthy, thank you, Universe!) and still working with sustainable tourism, tourism economics and marine mammal issues in general. I was teaching for the second semester at James Cook University, thus it kept me busy during the last half of the year, while the first half of the 2018 was busy with me getting married to my partner in mid-April (we started dating in mid 2010).

I’ve also been collaborating on some papers. Three of them are under review now; one on old stranding paintings with Rodney Westerlaken, the other one on the habitat suitability of marine megafauna in Solor Islands with Muhammad Iqbal Herwata Putra, and the last one is on cetacean bycatch in Gorontalo Sulawesi with Elena Wonneberger, Karim Erzini and Nuralim Pasisingi. Five papers are being cooked as we speak: the first one is on the economics of shark tourism in Indonesia (with Hollie Booth and Muh Ichsan), the second one is on the habitat suitability of cetaceans in Solor Islands with Iqbal Herwata Putra, the third one is on the habitat suitability of cetaceans in Indonesia (with Achmad Sahri and Iqbal Herwata Putra), the fourth one is on the governance of marine mammals in Indonesia (with Achmad Sahri) and the fifth one is on the souvenir sellers in Lovina (with Riccardo Welters, Neil Loneragan and Carol Warren). There’s a batch of data on environmental education that I want to analyse, but I really have to set time for that to make it happen (!).

My project infography (2014-2017)

I've been meaning to make an infograph of my projects with Piktochart, but I haven't made time until just now. Now it seems a good time to make and publish it, considering year end etc. I only have the free account of Piktochart, which is very limited in templates and also sharing options. Not sure if I need to set aside fund for Piktochart subscription, for so far I'm happy with what I have. The more interactive option of this image is below the break (or click this).

I'm a nature tourism analyst

Post her here just because Margot Kidder's Lois Lane
 is a cool investigative journalist...

It occurred to me just now that I didn't market myself properly. I mostly market myself as a whale and dolphin researcher (leaving out the dugongs just because I'm not an Sirenian expert). However, I am also a marine tourism analyst. I have not only analysed dolphin tourism in Asia, but I have also analysed coral reef tourism in Bali and am currently analysing sharks and rays tourism in Indonesia (for Wildlife Conservation Society).

That means that I work with any marine animals, not just the dolphins or whales. Bring on those sharks, rays, sea turtles and penguins to me (if any).

Now it occurred to me, that I should not restrict myself to marine. As long as we talk about nature and sustainability, I feel comfortable in it.





Hence, I'd like to label myself as a nature tourism analyst. I'm interested in analysing the human dimension part of nature tourism (particularly wildlife tourism), be it in a marine or terrestrial setting. So, no more just limiting myself to marine setting; bring on those elephants and giraffes. Heck, I'd love to analyse some Himalayan nature tourism cases one day!

Oh, and although I am more interested in developing country settings, I'm also open to analyse any cases in developed countries as well.

And I'm always reachable through putuliza at gmail dot com.

Updates about the first semester of 2017

Apologies for the sloppy updating...

The first semester of 2017 was filled with writings... proposals and papers... and also giving some guest lectures to two subjects at James Cook University. My NGO (Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia) have lodged some proposals, yet no traction yet - but we won't give up!

I have submitted a book chapter with Ms Naneng Setiasih and Associate Prof. Riccardo Welters about tourist experience and economic benefits of dolphin watching in Lovina, updating my PhD work. The chapter will be included in a book about coral reef tourism, edited by Dr Anja Pabel and Prof Bruce Prideaux of Queensland University of Technology in Cairns Australia. Hopefully the book will be published before 2017 ends.

Meanwhile, I've also been hired by Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Programme to do a study on the benefits of sharks and rays tourism to conserve sharks and rays. The project started in May and will finish this August. I will keep update this blog on the results.

New paper on the sustainability of dolphin watching industries in Asia

The title of our new paper

Closing this 2016, my colleagues and I are very happy to announce the publication of our collaborative paper on the sustainability of dolphin watching tourism in Asia in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. The citation and abstract are below. We have also written a piece in The Conversation (lead author Gerard E. Ryan) here.


Video Abstract - A rapid assessment of wildlife tourism risk posed to cetaceans in Asia from Taylor & Francis on Vimeo.

Bapak, Ibu, rekan kerja sekalian, dengan bahagia dan lega saya sampaikan peer-reviewed publication berikut ini tentang wisata lumba-lumba di Asia yang barusan dimuat di Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Kami juga sudah menuliskan satu artikel di The Conversation (penulis utama Gerard E. Ryan) di tautan ini.

Abstract and citations are below. Abstrak dan sitiran di bawah ini.

The US National Marine Animal Health and Stranding Response Conference (September 2016)

The Indonesian country update poster

The US National Marine Animal Health and Stranding Response Conference that I attended in early September (6-9 Sept 2016) was not the first of its kind that I attended at a national level, but it was certainly the most impressive one. My sincere thanks to International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) for their generous contributions so that I could attend this event, and for NOAA for extending the invitation to me.

The conference enabled me to learn many things to apply to Indonesia’s own national marine mammal stranding network. The followings are lessons I learned during some sessions of the conference. Granted, I couldn’t attend all sessions as much as I wanted to. For instance, given my limited medical/veterinarian knowledge, I only attended some veterinary sessions that my Indonesian vet colleagues would have not missed for the world. However, what I’ve learned from the sessions I did attend was a treasure. The followings are things that I learned the most during the conference, not necessarily in the order of magnitude nor importance. 

BBC Earth article on my work in Lovina

The spinner dolphins in Lovina (Mustika@JCU)

BBC Earth correspondent Lesley Evans Ogden interviewed me last December in San Francisco during the 21st Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals. The interview is now at the BBC Earth website here. I copy and paste the part that has my research below, but the article covers many other aspects of whale watching from other researchers, so it's a really good read. 

Putu Mustika, an adjunct researcher at James Cook University in Australia, and co-founder of the non-profit Cetacean Sirenia Indonesia, has also been exploring how dolphins react to being closely watched by humans in boats. It is a research area she was alerted to by journalists concerned by the practice of boats chasing dolphins.

For the spinner dolphins she studies in Lovina, North Bali, there is, as yet, no formal protocol for marine mammal watching. As a result, it is not uncommon for there to be more dolphin-watching boats than dolphins.

IORA whale and dolphin watching workshop

I was invited to the beautiful Sri Lanka last February to attend IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association) whale and dolphin watching workshop. This post is basically my report to the IORA Indonesia Secretariat, slightly modified for this post. Special thanks to Lars Bejder of Murdoch Uni who has recommended my participation, IORA Indonesia who has elected me as an Indonesian rep, the Australian Govt (the Department of Environment) for funding the whole event, International Whaling Commission as the amazing co-facilitator, and the Sri Lanka Institute of Policy Studies for being a great host. I will visit Sri Lanka again one day... seven days is not enough...

On 24-26 February 2016, a regional IORA workshop on sustainable whale and dolphin watching was conducted in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Titled “Building sustainable whale and dolphin watching tourism in the Indian Ocean region”, the workshop was based on IORA’s goal, i.e., “to promote the sustained growth and balanced development of the region and of the Member States” and at least one of IORA’s six priority areas (i.e., tourism and cultural exchanges)(IORA 2015a). As of 2015, IORA has also put emphasize on the Blue Economy concept. 

Indonesia's National Plan of Action for the Cetaceans

Just a short post to inform you all that Indonesia (the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries) has released its National Plan of Action for the Conservation of Cetaceans. The document is still in Indonesian language. I have the English version of the earlier draft (because I was one of the authors), but we will need time (and funding, I suppose) to translate it into English. Based on the 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans (Reeves et al 2003), the document contains strategies to address unsustainable anthropogenic activities (bycatch, blast fishing, direct catch, tourism in the wild, captivity, marine debris, vessel strikes, and competition with fisheries) and disturbance to cetacean habitats (coastal and riverine development, commercial and military sonar, chemical pollution, biotoxin and climate change). The national marine mammal stranding network is also mentioned as one of the action plans. Click here for the document in Indonesian language. (terjemahan bahasa Indonesia di bawah break)

New Year notes for the past semester

A Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni) we encountered off the Uluwatu Temple, Bali, November 2015

Since this is the last day of the year, I thought I’ll just write myself some pointers of what I did during the second semester of 2015. Starting with July-August where my colleagues and I were trying to set up CETASI, real pain in the admin. I have to credit Yanti Purnomo as the star in navigating the bureaucratic waters in Indonesia, but Adityo Setiawan, Jaya Ratha and Erdi Lazuardi also provided tremendous support.

August saw me returning to Bali for the Cetacean National Plan of Action (NPOA) meeting. It was a productive meeting; I assisted WWF Indonesia and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to build up the early version of the document. So far, the document includes issues such as bycatch, tourism, seismic and acoustic, ocean noise, alternative livelihood, captivity and Marine Mammal Protected Areas. Kudos to Sarminto Hadi, Miasto Yudha and team for pulling off the meeting. We also had our first stranding training workshop for the expatriates in Bali at Seminyak with Whale Stranding Indonesia and Soul Surf Project Bali. Well, not just for the expats, for we also had local participants (and a girl flying from Sabah Malaysia just for this training!), but it was definitely the first English-speaking training that I delivered, and I actually enjoyed it. The CETASI also had our first annual meeting (at my father’s place in Bali, actually), and we carry with us a list of homework to be done... which hasn’t all been done...(palm/face).

Update on the CETASI, stranding website, and NPOA

Humpback whale, Bali, 2 Oct 2007, by Made Sujana (Tanah Lot Authority)

Where have I been for the last six months?? Sorry for the slow update... But I've been swirling inside the bureaucratic world of NGO registration in Indonesia. But anyway, after about six months of navigating the bureaucratic waters of Indonesia, I'm happy to announce that the CETASI (Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia) has been approved by the government, and we are now a registered NGO in Indonesia. Yay!

Our website is online already; www.cetasindonesia.org, but I'm planning to move it to another domain registrar because my current registrar (GoDaddy) is getting a bit too pricey. I also need to add ~ $10 per year per site (I have three extensions: .com, .net and .org) if I want my personal information (e.g., address, email and even phone number!) kept secret from the prying online world. That's too much of a price, and hence it will be byebye GoDaddy soon... 

Anyway... the second news is that we've been doing a facelift to the main marine mammal stranding website (www.whalestrandingindonesia.com). It now includes a more comprehensive database, complete with graphs and filtering system. it will also has a map, but I need to upgrade the package first, so it might have to wait for a few months. So far though, I'm very happy with our database provider (Knack). It's easy to use even for HTML-haters like me, the agents are friendly, embedding to the main website is also easy. I registered our stranding website with Namecheap (very happy about the service) and used Weebly for the web-design and hosting (again, very happy, totally recommended!). I've linked the main website with the new interface just now. The stranding website is still down by the time I post this article, but I hope in 24 hours the website is up and running again. 

The Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia

the Cetasi logo, from www.cetasindonesia.org

My colleagues and I have been involved in marine mammal conservation in Indonesia for more than a decade now. In addition to our independent works, we have banded together to improve the marine mammal conservation practices. Our first endeavour was the establishment of a mailing list for marine mammal enthusiasts (Marine Mammals Indonesia), created in 2004 when Yahoo was the king of cyberspace. Then, nine years later, we catapulted our joint efforts further by creating an online stranding database (www.whalestrandingindonesia.com). We have also conducted some workshops (notably, I should say, the November 2013 national stranding workshop, in addition to several local workshops). Those workshops required funding, the proposals of which we wrote either as individuals or on behalf of other institutions (notably the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center). 

However, we feel that it’s time now to have our own legal vehicle to conduct our conservation programs. At the very least, it would help with grant application. Thus, since the last few months, Februanty Purnomo (Yanti), Adityo Setiawan (Adit) and myself have been discussing the possibility of legally establishing an NGO fully dedicated to the conservation management of marine mammals. The NGO will cover, inter alia, bycatch and entanglement issues, cetacean watching tourism, biological and ecological assessments, marine mammal protected areas, and stranding management. 

Paper on expenditures of business visitor at the Great Barrier Reef Australia

The Great Barrier Reef

Another paper published last year at Tourism Economics. Still have not got the online version, let alone the printed copy. But the abstract is below. I will update it once the PDF is available.

Mustika, P. L. K., Farr, M. and Stoeckl, N. (2014b), 'The potential implications of environmental deterioration on business and non-business visitor expenditures in a natural setting: a case study of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef', Tourism Economics.

Abstract:

Nature-based tourism can be an important source of income for regional economies, but relies on a healthy environment. Using data collected from business and non-business visitors to Australia’s coast adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, the authors generate estimates of the potential financial impact of environmental degradation, demonstrating a novel way of testing and controlling for hypothetical response bias. More than 90% of non-business visitors and 67% of business visitors came to the region for at least one nature-related reason. Average daily expenditure was similar for both visitor segments (about $190), but the determinants of expenditure varied. All visitors reacted much more negatively to the prospect of environmental degradation than to a 20% increase in (local) prices, although business visitors were much less responsive than non-business visitors. Adjusting for hypothetical response bias, the authors estimate that substantial environmental degradation could reduce visitor expenditures (and thus local tourism incomes) by at least 17%.  

Update 3 August 2016:

The article received its issue number etc last June. You can download the copy here through the Tourism Economics website, or email me at putuliza at gmail dot com. The Harvard version of the citation is this:

Mustika, P., Stoeckl, N. & Farr, M. 2016, 'The potential implications of environmental deterioration for business and non-business visitor expenditures in a natural setting: a case study of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef', Tourism Economics, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 484-504.

New paper: Evaluating the potential disturbance from dolphin watching in Lovina

Happy New Year you all! Sorry for the silence, I've been trying to publish more paper since the last two months. Slow progress, but it's getting there. Hey, at least I published two papers last year (two is definitely not a big number, bad Icha, bad...), and one of them is this note on Marine Mammal Science with DOI 10.1111/mms/12188.

Mustika, P.L.K., A. Birtles, Y. Everingham and H. Marsh. 2014. Evaluating the potential disturbance from dolphin watching in Lovina, north Bali, Indonesia. Marine Mammal Science. DOI 10.1111/mms/12188.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.12188/abstract

Full PDF is also available at Dropbox.

The marine mammal stranding brochure and poster

Berikut ini adalah artikel tentang brosur dan poster penanganan mamalia laut yang terdampar dalam bahasa Inggris. Klik tautan ini untuk edisi bahasa Indonesia. 

After several months of delay, we are delighted to finally bring you the translated version of the marine mammal stranding brochure and poster, funded by WWF Indonesia. Special thanks to Dinda Prayunita for the design and Nimal Fernando for the editing. So far, we have no plan to mass-print this English edition. However, high-res PDFs are available upon request for individual printing. 

the brochure, 1st page

The final report for the cetacean bycatch study, funded by the International Whaling Commission

Berikut ini adalah abstrak dan tautan untuk laporan akhir cetacean bycatch di Paloh dan Adonara Indonesia yang didanai oleh the International Whaling Commission. Di bawah ini adalah artikel bahasa Inggris. Untuk bahasa Indonesia, klik tautan ini. 

Fishing boats in Paloh, West Kalimantan (@Putu Liza Mustika 2014)

The followings are the abstract and link to the final report of cetacean bycatch in Paloh and Adonara Indonesia, generously funded by the International Whaling Commission. Our many gratitudes to Dr Toni Ruchimat as the Director General of the Capture Fisheries of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries for his support and introductory letter. Our many gratitudes as well to WWF Indonesia, particularly Dwi Suprapti, DVM and Agri Aditya who have taken us everywhere in Paloh, West Kalimantan during our field work. We would also like to acknowledge Dr Danielle Kreb (RASI Foundation) and Dr Tara S. Whitty who had conducted their independent cetacean bycatch studies in East Kalimantan prior to this study. Dr Whitty had also provided us useful suggestions during the design phase of the work. Our thanks are also extended to our research assistants (Emitha Wulandari, Tyas Woro Prasasti and Abdul Hamid Sidik) for the data collection and data entry.

If the link is not working, do contact me at putuliza at gmail dot com for the PDF.

A pilot study to identify the extent of small cetacean bycatch in Indonesia using fisher interview and stranding data as proxies

Final report to the International Whaling Commission

By Putu Liza Mustika¹, Februanty S. Purnomo², and Simon Northridge³

1, 2 Whale Stranding Indonesia

3 School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom

Abstract

This study examines the extent of artisanal fishery bycatch of cetaceans at two locations in Indonesia. The study locations were at Paloh (West Kalimantan) and at Adonara (East Nusa Tenggara); each site represents different gear types and different cetacean species. We used three methods: semi-structured interviews of fishermen; examination of stranding data and direct observations. The work was preceded by a workshop to identify signs of fishing gear interaction on cetacean stranding cases in Bali in November 2013, followed by direct observations and interviews from late February to early May 2014. 

Laporan akhir cetacean bycatch yang didanai oleh International Whaling Commission

The followings are the abstract and link to the final report of cetacean bycatch in Paloh and Adonara Indonesia, funded by the International Whaling Commission. The article is in Indonesian. Click here for the English version.

 

The Lamahala beach in Adonara, East Nusa Tenggara (@Februanty Purnomo 2014)

Berikut ini adalah abstrak dan tautan untuk laporan akhir kegiatan pemantauan cetacean bycatch di Paloh dan Adonara yang didanai oleh the International Whaling Commission.Terima kasih banyak untuk Dr Toni Ruchimat sebagai Direktur Jenderal Perikanan Tangkap di Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan atas dukungan dan surat pengantar resmi dari beliau. Terima kasih juga kepada WWF Indonesia, terutama Drh Dwi Suprapti yang telah mengantar kami melakukan ke mana-mana di Paloh, Kalimantan Barat. Kami juga mengucapkan terima kasih dan menghargai hasil kerja Dr Danielle Kreb (RASI Foundation) dan Dr Tara S. Whitty yang telah melakukan penelitian bycatch cetacean secara terpisah di Kalimantan Timur beberapa tahun sebelum riset kami dilakukan. Dr Whitty juga telah memberikan masukan kepada kami saat perancangan riset ini. Kami juga berterima kasih kepada para asisten riset kami (Emitha Wulandari, Tyas Woro Prasasti and Abdul Hamid Sidik) yang telah membantu pengumpulan data dan data entry.

Jika tautan tidak berfungsi, silakan hubungi saya di putuliza at gmail dot com untuk PDFnya. 

A pilot study to identify the extent of small cetacean bycatch in Indonesia using fisher interview and stranding data as proxies

Final report to the International Whaling Commission

By Putu Liza Mustika¹, Februanty S. Purnomo², and Simon Northridge³

1, 2 Whale Stranding Indonesia

3 School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom

Abstrak

Dokumen ini mengkaji tangkapan samping mamalia laut dalam perikanan tradisional di dua tempat di Indonesia. Studi ini dilakukan di Paloh (Kalimantan Barat) dan Adonara (Nusa Tenggara Timur); setiap lokasi mewakili alat tangkap yang berbeda dan spesies mamalia laut yang berbeda pula. Studi ini menggunakan tiga metode: wawancara semi terstruktur dengan nelayan; pemeriksaan kejadian terdampar dan pengamatan langsung. Kegiatan ini didahului oleh pelatihan untuk mengidentifikasi tanda-tanda interaksi alat tangkap pada kasus mamalia laut terdampar pada bulan November 2013 di Bali, yang diikuti dengan pengamatan langsung dan wawancara pada bulan Februari sampai dengan Maret 2014.