For the longest time, Puri Jati was a local secret hotspot only known to marine biologists and a few local divers for a great muck site. Even the local fishermen left the area alone. It was more famous for the grass fields and photo ops of the local farmers.
Of course the last 4-5 years, the secret was out and now there are facilities similar to Secret Bay (another secret location that was leaked out in the late 80s). Secret Bay suffered from seahorse collectors who sold it in the chinese medicine shops.
Puri Jati is facing a more pervasive problem, drag net fishing by fishermen.
For years, I'd seen schools of baitfish (probably sardines or herring) at this spot, especially off the deeper slopes. Sometimes, even bottlenose dolphins swim by to hit them (I only ever heard them hunt but never saw it ).
The fishermen would drag their tight nylon nets over the seascape to corral the baitfish into their big net. They use to do it monthly and all the critters on the muck would return after a week or so. But now they are doing it more often. I was there 2 days in a row and they were out there on both days. There is supposedly an agreement where the fishermen would leave a certain area alone due to diver safety. However, even then they leave their nets at the boundary (see pic) and drag around. In the past I've had to quickly swim over the dragging nets. Besides the safety issue, everything on the seafloor is collected due to the tight mesh net. This place use to have all sorts of cephalopods, scorpionfish and urchin colonies easily found. Now you have to look REALLY hard to find them as all you see are the marks left behind on the muck by the lead weights.
Why am I reporting this now? I think we should all pressure the local dive ops to pressure the local fishermen to leave the area alone. They charge Rp19000 per person for diving the area. They can easily raise it to Rp35000 (same as Secret Bay) and hire someone to enforce the no fish zone. I'm sure the fish would recover and multiply so the fishermen would get a net gain if they are patient.
So if you have dived PJ or planning to dive there, write to your dive ops and insist they work together to deal with the fishermen. Balinese dive ops are notoriously solitary in their work attitude. Only their customers can get them to work together.
Click to view attachment
Tight mesh net with lead weights going over what was a coral.

HI Drew

Sorry tried to send you a PM but dont think you are able to receive them.

HI Drew

I saw your post about the netting in Indo, I am working on a petition at the moment about shark catching in Indonesia for the drug company Holista. This is what their response is about where they catch sharks...... What I am wondering do you think there could be any connection to the nets you are seeing with these catches of sharks......... I know it says Tuna fisheries, but I also know Indo and that given the chance the fisherman may be catching the sharks through other areas as well. Here is the message from Holista


Here is where they say they get their sharks..

"The material we use for the Holista Shark Cartilage product comes from
the Blacktip Reef Shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) caught in Indonesia and Vietnam. This species is not endangered. Our supplier has indicated that the shark is not a targeted species but is caught during the tuna fishery. Since shark would die if released, they are instead harvested. The shark meat is sold as well as the cartilage."

Just wondering, I will be posting about this soon as we have until April 28th to write letters stating why sharks should not be used for vitamins, which will go infront of their board on the 28th.

Thanks

Karen

Well I'd say they were FOS. Blacktip reefsharks are inshore species. Last I remember big yellowfin tuna fisheries were off the continental shelf (ScubaSi was "honeymooning" on these boats for awhile so he may chime in). The inshore fisheries are for smaller tuna. The trolling Indo tuna fisheries are near collapse already. In fact, WWF just managed to convince a company for tuna boats to use rounded hooks to prevent turtle capture.
Shark stocks in general are seriously down in Indonesia so I don't know where they get that it's not endangered. Nobody has done any real stock of Indonesian shark stocks but it's pretty clear to the observer that it's starved of sharks anyway there's a dive boat.

Thanks Drew, I believe they will be getting the sharks from the near shore fisheries, just gathering info. Such a shame for Secret Bay, never got there myself........

Wow you replied too fast while I was post editing.

I dive Bali during the fall of each year, usually Oct/Dec, & have also witnessed this netting operation during a dive. From what I've seen I can't understand why the fishermen spend their time in areas like PJ's. Very little there is edible, at least from my prospective. Maybe they already caught the larger species. The few times that I saw the net u/w there was virtually nothing in it. This has generally been the case during the last 5 yrs that I've been there. The amount of marine life that divers find at PJ's varies from year to year, & season to season. 2007 was not very productive photo wise. 2008 was pretty good - for some animals it was better than Lembeh, which I dove about 2 wks earlier. Did well with wunderpus, ambon scorpionfish & gobies, but more time searching was required than 2005/06.

I had the opportunity for a lengthy conversation with Annabel Thomas, owner of Aqua Marine Diving. We talked about the on-going attempt by AMD & other dive operators to convince local villages to end their netting operations in dive areas like Puri Jati. They seem willing to listen, but things move very slowly in Indonesia. Fishermen tend to work their village's water, whatever that includes. Divers would be happy to pay a greater fee to dive in their waters if more marine life was present. The villages could make a lot more rupiah protecting marine resources than trying to catch what little is left. Like most great dive sites, go before its too late. I will talk again with Annabel later this year for an update on progress with the villages.

Drew

Thanks for report this situation.

Actually i'm planning a trip to Indo next november and i was thinking to spend 3 nights at Zen for some macro diving . Now i doubt i will stay there . I don't want to dive among dragging nets !

We have the same situation here in Dominican Republic but they don't drag the nets , they drop long gill nets during the night . The net holes are smaller than 2 inches and that is forbidden by law , we are trying to avoid this to happen but here ( like all poor countries ) the law enforcement is a difficult matter. I'm member of the director board of the Reef Check's local chapter and we are having some success working together with the Enviroment ministery but things are very slow , is a lengthy battle.

Anyway i will write to Blue Season Dive center but i think i will stay in another area .

Regards

Jose Alejandro

PJ's is one of the most prolific known mimic octopus sites in Indo. Many marine biologists go there for that reason. I think the popularity of the spot by divers probably cued the fishermen to fish there. I wish the secret never got out.
I've seen plenty of bait fish and trevallies hunting them. Also schools of mullet sifting the sands, all edible fish for the local fishermen.
We also have to accept that muck diving isn't as popular as the reef dives with fishlife. Many dive ops don't even go up to PJ or Secret Bay because most customers don't want to dive in sand. The traffic for muck sites are driven by photogs and macro enthusiasts. If there's a constant flow of tourists in the area, protecting it would be easier. We had no other divers that day, which was probably why the fishermen dragged over the area.