68 MARCH 2022 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG environmental NGO in Indonesia. As a large exporter of coal to the world, Indonesia has many coal mining enterprises. East Kalimantan Province is where coal mining plays the main role in the local economy, responsible for almost half of Indonesia’s total coal production. There are more than 127,000 ha of open mines scattered throughout every district of the province, even in remote areas. In open-pit mining, coal is extracted from subsurface seams after removing surface soil layers, leaving a large hole in the land surface. As a practical matter, this hole is difficult to fill with soil because considerable environmental destruction elsewhere is necessary to obtain the fill material. Filling open-pit mines after coal extraction is complete is also a heavy financial burden to the coal mining companies. The Environmental Agency of Samarinda City of East Kalimantan Province calculated that it costs about US$ 23 million to fill a 1-ha open-pit coal mining hole to a depth of 30 m (Kaltim Post 2015). Because of these difficulties, a high number of former open-pit coal mines have not been filled, even though government regulations require land reclamation. In East Kalimantan Province alone, there are 1753 coal mining pits open at present (Woodbury and Arbainsyah 2020, JawaPos 2021), representing at least 87,000 ha of potential reservoirs, a number that will only increase. NGOs Against Fish Culture in Former Coal Mining Reservoirs In response to these giant reservoirs, some environmental NGOs have organized protests against coal mining enterprises and the government because they failed to fill them in. However, this In World Aquaculture magazine December 2004, Miller et al. (2004) reported that the effluent from open-pit coal mines can be used to produce fish that are safe for human consumption. Based on this report, in 2006 we grew fish in net pens in an abandoned former open-pit coal mine that had filled with water (Fig. 1). Culture in the abandoned former open-pit mine was done for two reasons: 1) to make use of the reservoirs created following the cessation of mining activities that are present in almost every part of country, especially to help local people who find it difficult to get cheap animal protein, and 2) to provide scientific research information on the feasibility of the use of a reservoir created from a former open-pit coal mine for fish culture. The culture trial was successful and it was the first scientific report of fish culture in a former coal mining reservoir in Indonesia (Maidie et al. 2010). The report was cited by a local newspaper and a fisheries background researcher and an environmental NGO in East Kalimantan Province did not accept this for two reasons. First, they believe that the use of former open-pit coal mines for fish culture relieves coal mining enterprises of the responsibility for reclamation of the giant open holes in the landscape. Second, they believe that all reservoirs in coal mining areas are contaminated with high levels of toxic heavy metals, as reported by Greenpeace (2005). Although scientific reports show that fish culture can be done in water from reservoirs created by former open-pit coal mines (Simmons et al. 2001, Miller et al. 2004, Otchere et al. 2005, Environment Agency 2008), an international environmental NGO did not agree, seemingly influenced by the Environmentalism vs Subsistence Aquaculture in Utilization of Former Open-Pit Coal Mines as Reservoirs for Aquaculture in Indonesia Asfie Maidie, Ismail Fahmy Almadi and Henny Pagoray FIGURE 2. A reservoir formed in a former open-pit coal mine in 2021, five years after filling. The reservoir is about 15 ha and 30 m deep. Water quality measurements indicated its suitability for fish culture. This reservoir is used by nearby villagers to culture fish in net pens. FIGURE 1. Net pens in an abandoned open-pit coal mine in 2006. The 3-mm cage mesh was made with aluminum wire to prevent the entrance of predators such as snakes, monitor lizards, water otters or turtles.
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