Sidik examined a red grouper he’d caught earlier on his boat. “The average length of this fish is 320 millimeters, which means it’s a mature fish,” Sidik told me. More than 50 percent of the red grouper catch in Saleh Bay is juvenile—meaning they have not been able to reach their full size or breed. Fishers here notice their depleted supply from years of overfishing. “Many of us depend on fishing as our vital source of food and livelihoods, and we need to do something about it,” added Sidik.

Snappers and groupers have been harvested in Saleh Bay since the 1990’s, with a growing demand from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province, where Sidik is based, is one of the most important sites in Indonesia for grouper and snapper fisheries, and the country is the second-largest producer of wild-caught seafood in the world. These species are not under protection by government law, and the absence of regulations could potentially bring local fisheries to a collapse, with devastating consequences for fishers like Sidik.