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.