As demand for mud crabs skyrockets across Asia, overfishing and habitat loss are putting them at risk.
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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.
06:44She sautées the crabs for about seven minutes.
07:07The crabs are priced anywhere from $11 to $21 per kilogram, depending on the variety.
07:34Supported crabs could fetch significantly higher prices in markets like Singapore.
07:40The restaurant never serves more than 300 crabs per day.
07:43In fact, we have a lot of use of a petting jantan.
07:49For petting, in a month there is a lot of use of the pattern.
07:55While the crab village cooks its dish with local mangrove fruits, the most popular way
08:19to eat the crustacean is with a sweet and savory tomato-based chili sauce.
08:25Chili crab is the signature dish of Singapore, found in top restaurants around the country
08:30like Red House Seafood.
08:32It has a sweet tangy and thick red sauce, and it's served in the cracked crab shell with
08:37fried or steamed buns called manto.
08:41Since the late 1990s, this local delicacy has been almost 100% imported.
08:48Singapore is the second biggest importer of mud crabs in the world, bringing in a few
08:53thousand tons per year.
08:56According to some estimates, nearly 90% of Singapore's mangrove forests have been destroyed over
09:01the last 70 years.
09:04The same thing is happening in Indonesia.
09:08But it wasn't always like this.
09:10Today, nearly a fifth of all mangrove forests on earth are in Indonesia.
09:25Over the past 30 years, Indonesia has lost around 50% of its mangrove forests because of deforestation
09:34for aquaculture farms, timber, and coastal development.
09:38Globally, mangrove forests declined up to 35% over the same time span.
09:44Made and Kulik experienced mangrove destruction directly in 2011 when the Indonesian government
09:51built a new toll road through the region, which involved cutting down about 5 acres of mangroves.
09:59With the help of a government grant, Made set up a self-sustaining community that regulates
10:03the mud crab harvest.
10:28We don't just limit how many mud crabs are harvested.
10:32To preserve the 75 acres they oversee, they also focus on preserving the trees there.
10:37Then for the power of to be able to get better, we must reduce the forest, not be able to lose.
10:53For example, if he did a nest in the forest, as we have to raise trees in our forest,
11:00he must raise 50-100 trees and that will stay.
11:06and it has to live.
11:08If we have a petting,
11:09then the members of our members
11:13will also be punished.
11:15They are banned to take a petting
11:17for six months, for example.
11:20The Fisherman's Collective is also working
11:22to end pollution in the area.
11:25Until now, the small example
11:28that we haven't managed to return
11:30is 100% of the land.
11:34It can be sent from the sea or from the sea.
11:38It can come every day.
11:40And it's not 100% that we can return to the sea.
11:45Agustiana's main focus
11:47is mangrove conservation and education.
11:50But after I was born,
11:52the forestry of the forest has been here.
11:55There are a lot of mangrove trees
11:58and the forestry of the forest.
12:01Now, I want to return to the forest
12:06that I enjoy when I was young
12:07so that I can return to the forest.
12:09Part of Agust's work
12:12is also educating young people in the area
12:14about the problems they face.
12:16Students regularly visit the site
12:19to learn about crab cultivation
12:21and help plant new mangrove trees.
12:23Despite the work of Agust and others
12:27looking to protect the mangroves
12:28and the species that thrive there,
12:31the global outlook doesn't look good.
12:33The International Union for Conservation of Nature
12:36predicts that more than half of the world's mangroves
12:39are at risk of collapse by 2050.
12:43While mud crabs aren't on the endangered species list yet,
12:46recent studies have shown the population is in decline
12:49and that preserving the mangroves is critical to saving them.
12:54Nah, kalau pohonnya hilang,
12:56otomatis
12:58ini kepiting juga akan hilang.
13:01Bagaimana kita bisa menikmati alamnya
13:03kalau alamnya kita rusak?
13:05Jadi kita harus mengembalikan kembali hutan itu
13:08sehingga kepiting bisa,
13:11kepiting, ikan, dan sebagainya
13:13itu bisa tumbuh dan berkembang lagi di sini.
13:17Nah itu lamapat yang diadaf fools.
13:18If we take care of the nature, then the nature will take care of us.
13:23That's the only thing for us.