No technical difficulty in implementing the new survey has been reported so far, except for a few areas like north Sumatra, Riau and east Java. For these areas special instructions have been prepared. Still, the progress of the new survey is far from what was expected, even though several years have passed since its implementation. There are still some provinces where the new survey has not yet been implemented at all, due to the absence of a budget to be supported by provincial governments. There are also still many provinces where the new survey is not fully implemented due to their persistance in continuing their own survey, which the new survey is to replace. The new survey is often suspended, due mainly to long absence of field enumerators, who are requested to attend upgrading courses or carry out other duties.
It is not clear when this survey can be stabilized if the present situation remains. To stabilize the survey, a national meeting specifically designed for fishery statistics should be held at least once every year. Also, frequent visits of DGF senior fishery statisticians to problem areas is absolutely essential.
What is more important however, is, that senior staff of the Statistics Division, including the chief, should be free from any work other than fishery statistics. In this way, if there is any misdirection of the survey (which is easily identified from the reporting forms) immediate action can then be taken with the provincial fisheries services. The intensive and uninterrupted leadership of the Statistics Division, which is the central office of fishery statistics, is absolutely essential to stabilize the new survey. Lack of progress of the new survey should not be attributed to any fault of the PFS, which is responsible for the field survey, if continuous supervision is not given by the DGF Statistics Division.
The existence of many unlicensed trawlers in both Java and Sumatra has been a great obstacle to the improvement of current fishery statistics. A thorough revision of the present licensing system for the trawl fishery is required immediately, keeping in mind that a licence must be properly issued for all existing trawlers concerned. Absence of properly controlled landing and marketing facilities for the trawl fishery is also another difficulty in obtaining good statistics.
The new survey has been designed to provide not only production data, but also the statistics of its producing factors, such as the number of fishing households, fishing boats and fishing units. Therefore, a number of useful analyses are possible by using these interrelated statistics. However, at present, such analyses have seldom been done, except for a study regarding an increasing trend in fishery production. It is noteworthy that the 1976 fishery statistics recently finalized clearly indicate a remarkable upward trend in production from the medium scale fishery and a considerable declining trend in the small scale fishery.
