00:00This crab fisherman is looking for the slightest movement on the surface of these muddy waters.
00:13When a claw emerges, he sticks his bare hands in to grab it before it grabs him.
00:24Mud crabs like this one have large meaty claws
00:28and are prized across Asia for their sweet taste.
00:31Here in Indonesia, villagers prepare it with local mangrove fruits and a secret spice.
00:37In Singapore, they're the centerpiece of the national dish,
00:41even though local crab populations have declined so drastically
00:45that they're mostly imported from other countries now.
00:49But mud crab habitats across Asia are disappearing.
00:53If Indonesia, one of the mud crabs' last havens, doesn't save the mangroves where they live,
00:59the creatures don't stand a chance.
01:10The Indonesian government and so-called crab villages like this one say they are replanting trees
01:16and cleaning up pollution to help preserve the species.
01:20But is it too little too late?
01:26Kulik is a 51-year-old mud crab fisherman at Kampung Kapiting Ekowisata Bali in Indonesia.
01:34He specializes in tracking down the elusive creatures in their natural habitats,
01:56salt tolerant trees and shrubs known as mangroves that grow along coastlines.
02:00Yeah, so, if it's a trap, it's really difficult to find.
02:07Barrel-shaped bamboo traps called booboos are an easy way to catch them.
02:13Kulik baits the booboos with fish or chicken heads
02:16and drops them in spots where the crabs usually feed on plants, mollusks, and crustaceans.
02:22So, if the medan isn't possible for them to be stored,
02:24the sand can be stored.
02:26The sand can be stored, and it has to be stored as a long distance.
02:29If it's necessary to be stored, it's used in a long distance that we can use it.
02:32So we can use the finger on the left.
02:36First, we can use the finger on the left.
02:38With the hand.
02:40The finger on the left.
02:42It's usually not content, but it's under the front.
02:45He also uses a bent iron tool to poke around in the mud, trying not to disturb the delicate mangroves.
03:15But catching mud crabs can be painful.
03:29So if we talk about the most difficult and easy, the most difficult is to use the hands.
03:35So the risk of the cap is higher.
03:38Because if we use the hands without protection, we will be able to move around like that.
03:44The most difficult thing is when it's too big, it's even more difficult.
03:53The process is when we take in the mirror,
03:57after we take it, we take it first and clean it.
04:03In 2020, the Indonesian government outlawed harvesting crabs smaller than 12 centimeters,
04:09or weighing under 150 grams.
04:12And pregnant females are off-limits completely.
04:15This crab village has its own slightly stricter rules to give the local crab population in these swamps
04:21a better chance to grow back.
04:23Fishermen are only allowed to catch a crab if it weighs at least 200 grams.
04:29But it needs to weigh 300 grams or more to be sold and eaten.
04:34So smaller crabs like these will need to spend about four months fattening up in a plastic container they call a crab apartment.
04:41Here, the villagers can easily feed them and monitor their growth until they are ready to be eaten.
04:47By focusing only on adult crabs, they are allowing the younger crabs time to grow large enough to reproduce and help prevent population decline.
04:57There are about 500 of these crab apartments on site.
05:01So, they are better than we are able to produce a crab by crab.
05:07So, every day, we don't have to be able to be able to be able to control the crab.
05:13So, we can only open the door and then we don't know if the crab is missing.
05:20So, we don't have to be able to lose.
05:22Made Sumasa is the head of the Fisherman's Association Kalik and other local fishers belong to.
05:28Once they weigh anywhere from 300 to 500 grams, the crabs are ready to move out of the apartments and into the kitchens of the crab village's restaurant.
05:38The local fishermen's association founded the crab village and purchases all of the crabs caught on site.
05:44Fishermen here catch only enough to feed the visitors of the restaurant.
05:49Assurashsemini runs the women's group, Fishermen's Wives, who opened this restaurant in 2013.
06:09Today, it is a form of Snurashmini, who has been on sale in the restaurant.
06:14group, Fisherman's Wives, who opened this restaurant in 2013.
06:18Today, she is preparing one of their best sellers.
