The Shrimp Culture Research Centre (Pusat Penelitian Udang) at Jepara was established in 1971 under the Director General of Fisheries, Jakarta, for conducting applied research to improve production in brackish-water ponds. The Indonesian Government obtained UNDP assistance to develop the centre (Project No. FAO/UNDP INS/72/003) from September 1972 on. The Jepara centre is constructed on a peninsula, about 90 km northeast of Semarang (Central Java), facing the Java Sea, which is shallow along the coast. A 57 ha experimental fish farm for shrimp and milkfish culture research is located adjacent to the station. The chemical section of the centre occupies two relatively large areas, containing a general laboratory and a pesticide laboratory; there is also a balance room and storage rooms. For the bioassay studies a series of eighty (60 litre) aquaria with air, fresh-water and sea-water supply is available.
Concerning studies on pesticides in Indonesia, this was previously mainly restricted to studies using bioassay techniques for the evaluation of the toxic effects of pesticides in biological systems. These bioassay studies are mostly carried out by the Inland Fishery Research Institute at Bogor, at the request of the Indonesian Pesticide Committee. This committee is responsible for the import permission for pesticides, and requires that bioassay tests be carried out prior to granting permission for import. The 1974 official list of permitted pesticides contains 94 pesticides, which represent about 76 different compounds. Some of them are brought on the market under different trade names (Hadiwijaya, 1974). Excluded from the list are DDT, BHC, Heptachlor, Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin and a number of other persistent chlorinated pesticides. Their application in agriculture (and fishculture) is prohibited. However, DDT is still allowed to be used for domestic and health purposes in particular for fighting the malaria mosquito. Dieldrin and Endrin were previously widely used, and in some places old stocks are still available, thus creating the possibility that these pesticides might still be found in the environment.
As far as official information could be obtained, only two laboratories exist in Indonesia which are equipped for pesticide-residue analysis. This concerns the Chemistry Division of the National Atomic Energy Agency, Pasar Junat Research Centre and the laboratory of the Ministry of Health, both at Jakarta. Two gas chromatographs are also available at the Indonesian Petroleum Institute, Jakarta, but their detectors do not permit low level pesticideresidue analysis, the equipment being used for oil analysis.
A few publications were available on pesticide residues, mainly on the Island of Java. Gorbach et al. (1971) reported on the measurements of Thiodan (Endosulfan) in rivers, ponds and seawater. Low amounts were found in rivers and ponds. Thiodan was undetectable in seawater. A relatively rapid degradation of this pesticide was suggested.
A more general investigation has been carried out by Koeman et al. (1974) on a variety of samples from 11 locations on Java. For fish, shrimp and molluscs the DDE concentrations were found to be at the level of 38 ± 11 ppb/wet weight (ug/kg), except for one station where a value ten times higher was observed. DDT and TDE (DDD) were generally below 20 ppb, while for Dieldrin and Endrin the concentrations were lower than 10 ppb, all per wet weight. The samples were analysed in the Netherlands.
The wide-spread use of agricultural pesticides in paddy fields are sources of contamination for the adjacent brackish-water fish pond areas, as well as for the tidal coastal waters which are valuable natural resources for fish and shrimp fry. This situation is of concern for the future development of brackish-water aquaculture and necessitated the installation of a pesticide analytical facility at Jepara for specific studies on these pesticides and training of personnel on residue analysis of pesticides. Details on the instrumentation and chemicals are given in Appendix 1.
From a number of samples pesticide analysis have been carried out by outside institutions, first to have already some result previous to the time the own equipment was operational, and second for a pesticide that could not be analysed by gas-chromatography. The results are given in Appendix 2. From samples being sent abroad for metal analysis, the results have not been obtained at the moment of finalizing this report.
In relation to the terms of references and with the arrival and installation of equipment, the following tasks have been undertaken:
Preparation and installation of the pesticide analytical equipment with the additionally required facilities;
research on the simplification of methodologies with particular emphasis on reduction of the use of ‘difficult-to-obtain’ supplies;
training of Indonesian soientists, in particular chemists who, in the future, will be involved in pesticide analysis;
bioassay studies on the toxicity and the residue concentrations of pesticides of interest for application in fish culture;
analysis of pesticide residues in environmental samples of interest for tambak cultures (brackish-water fish and shrimp cultures).
