Cerita Laut Indonesia

Marine mega biodiversity.

The world's largest marine bio diversity.

The place where the Indian ocean and the Pacific ocean collided.

The sea full of life.

From the invisible little creatures,

to the gigantic creatures.

An ocean full of resources and ecological values.

The sea of Indonesia.

Indonesian sea waters are far ranging 5.8 million square kilometers.

In Indonesian sea waters, we are able to find numerous and different types of unique marine ecological environments.

Various unique species in the world live in the Indonesian sea.

With around 3,500 fish species,

1114 sea grass species and more than 450 coral reef biota invest in Indonesian sea.

Indonesian sea is a habitat for 76% of coral reef species and 37% of world coral fish.

Indonesia is the heart of the world's coral triangle.

Meanwhile on the coast, the length of the coastal line of Indonesia, reaching more than 108,000 kilometres.

Throughout that coastal line we are blessed with the existence of the mangrove forest of around 3.48 million hectares.

Where the area is 23% of the total mangrove ecosystem in the world.

As the largest archipelagic country in the world, Indonesian marine resources and services value worth us $ 2.5 trillion per year.

The wealth value comes from fishery, coral reef, mangrove ecosystem, seagrasses ecosystem,

potential marine tourism, biotechnology, transportation and others.

This incredible wealth is not yet optimised while it’s facing the threats.

The 25,000 square kilometers of coral reefs are mapped,

while only 5.3% in very good conditions status,

and 27.18% in good conditions.

For the rest, 37.25% is good enough and 30.45% in damaged conditions.

Climate change and human activity are the biggest threat to Indonesia's marine fortune.

Excessive fishing and illegal fish catching are serious threat to Indonesia’s marine resources.

Also with the use of the dangerous catching tools that damage the environment,

such as the usage of fish bomb, poison, compressor diving

and toil that can damage corals and contribute as the biggest threat.

Not to mention the marine debris.

This waste pollution is not only happening in the coastal area, it is up to the high and deep sea.

The pollution is disrupting the lives of the marine biota and marine ecosystems,

as well as the human health and tourism sector.

The concern is, that the waste pollution in the sea contains plastics and metals.

Both have the corrosion and decomposition process that take 50 – 400 years.

If these threats are not well handled, they will bring the doomed to our marine resources.

More when we mention on the utilisation of the potential that is not maximised yet.

To identify the wealth of our marine resource is no longer only for the story-telling purpose to our grandkids.

To identify the wealth of our marine fortune is not only about to conserve and to utilise.

Threats and damages has happened.

What we are facing today is based on what we did in the past.

Let’s work on it now, to conserve our marine resources,

for the upcoming tomorrows.