An institutional analysis of sasi laut in Maluku, Indonesia

9.2.3 Ambon Island sites

Hutumuri includes several dusuns (sub-villages), including Lapaut and Toisapu (see map in
Figure 15.1). The marine village territory starts close to Batugong, located to the north of
Toisapu. Between here and Toisapu, it is sandy bottom, which we did not survey. The shallow
sand shelf (4-8 m deep) stretches out over 200 m, then dips to 20 m deep. Blast fishers targeting
schools of pelagic fish commonly operate over the sand shelf.

Along the shore between Toisapu and Lapaut, and from Lapaut to Hutumuri, there is a narrow
fringing coral reef (Table 9.4). The shore is mostly cliff, dropping rapidly to depths of 5-10 m.
Surveys were conducted all along this coast to the bay in front of the Hutumuri village. Here
at low tide, there is a 100 m exposed rock flat. Along the outer edge are living corals, barely
submerged at low tide, which are very much trampled and only partly alive. The Toisapu,
Lapaut, and Hutumuri marine village territories had a more live hard coral cover than Haruku-
Sameth and slightly less than Nolloth.

The Seri cove is one of the few places on southern Ambon Island where there is a ribbon of
coastal flat land, fronted by a beach of pebbles and dark sand dipping to a broad expanse
(perhaps 100 m wide) of intertidal rock flat fringed with living corals. In contrast, most of
this coast of Ambon Island is rocky cliff rising straight out of the water.

This shore is very wave-exposed during the eastern monsoon (May-September). Hard corals
are, therefore, mostly massive forms. There are also areas of boulders and cobble bottoms
where corals cannot survive. The hard coral cover in the Seri cove rarely exceeds 30% but
soft corals are more abundant. Dead corals are most common directly in front of the village,
where people gather shellfish and go spear fishing. To the northeast of the Seri cove, the
shore drops steeply to deep waters and there is little or no coral reef. Seri’s marine territory
extends to the headland called Tanjung Vanahu, beyond which the coast is claimed by the
village of Mahia (see map in Figure 14.1).

Seri’s land territory is bounded on the west by Airlow, a dusun of the desa of Nusaniwe that
includes the Muslim coastal hamlet of Wemi. We surveyed Airlow’s coastal territory from the
border of Seri and Wemi, south to Pintu Kota, the mouth of Ambon Harbor (Table 9.4). There is a
river on the boundary between Seri and Wemi. In front of the Wemi village, the bottom is a mix
of rock and sand, with soft, massive and sub-massive corals increasing with greater distance from

Table 9.4. Average condition of coral reefs in non-sasi village territories on the southern shore of Ambon
Island. Numbers refer to average coral cover categories, i.e., 1=≤10% cover on hard bottom, 2=11-30%,
3=31-50%, 4=51-75%, 5=76-100%. Abundance indicators: 0=absent, —=rare, -=uncommon, +=common,
++=abundant, +++=superabundant. Details of individual tows in Appendix 1.

90 An Institutional Analysis of Sasi Laut in Maluku, Indonesia

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