Bajo sailing and fishing activities are dominated by the east and west monsoon wind regimes. The monsoonal weather patterns produce periods of strong and light wind conditions and dry and wet seasons.

The east monsoon (salatang/musim timur) begins in April and ends in November. The beginning of the east monsoon is characterised by strong easterly winds (sangai banga'/angin timur kencang) lasting until July. These winds bring light rain between the months of May and July. This is followed by a period of light south easterlies and then a period of calm or no winds (sangai teddo/sangai matai/angin mati/angin teduh) between September and November. The latter part of the east monsoon is the best time to fish in the Timor and Arafura seas. At the end of the east monsoon there is a transitional period of changing wind directions (sangai taputar/angina pancaroba) that leads to the beginning of the west monsoon (barra'/musim barat). The west monsoon starts in late November or sometimes early December and lasts until March. It is a period of strong westerly winds, heavy rains, high seas, storms and squalls. The end of the west monsoon in March is another transitional period with winds that may blow from the southwest, northeast or northwest. This is followed by the doldrums, a period of light variable winds and smooth seas usually lasting for a week or two, which is ideal for fishing, but there is still the possibility of intermittent squalls or cyclonic activity in the waters of northern Australia. Then the strong easterlies return and the cycle begins again.

The ecologically rich inshore, coastal, and offshore ecosystems, and deep open waters of the Tukang Besi Archipelago are fertile grounds for the high marine biodiversity that provides a life support system for the Bajo. Modes of exploitation of these habitats are diverse. Technology ranges from simple hand-made gear such as traps, hooks and lines, and spears, to more costly store-bought equipment such as nets and longlines. Diving with hookah, a relatively inexpensive form of breathing apparatus, has become popular in recent years. This enables men to fish at greater depths for reef fish, lobster, trepang and trochus. Blast fishing, involving the use of dynamite on coral reefs, was fairly common in the past but the authorities have made it illegal and regular patrols of the marine park appear to have reduced the practice.

Bajo build and use a range of types of watercraft to carry out their diverse fishing activities and to transport people and cargoes. This includes a number of types of dugout canoe (lepa/lepa kaloko/sampan) propelled by paddle, a simple sail, or sometimes with an outboard motor (jonson); small 5–10 tonne planked boats (soppe/sope); small planked wooden boats with engines (bodi/motor); sail-powered and motorised perahu (perahu lambo, perahu layar motor) and larger motorised boats (kapal layar motor) (see Plates 3-2 and 3-3).

Bajo classify their fishing activities into four main types: nubba (gleaning), pali libu (inshore coastal fishing), pongka (reef fishing), and lama (long-distance, nomadic fishing). The distinctions between these activities depend on the environment fished, the technology used, and the distances travelled. The first three of these are mentioned briefly here, while lama is discussed in more detail in a later section.

Women and children undertake nubba in order to meet domestic needs. This activity covers the beach and the littoral zone, including sandflats, shallow waters and fringing reefs, during daylight hours. The products include trepang (bala), sea urchins (tetehe), edible seaweed, shellfish, crustaceans, hard corals and sponges.

Pali libu refers to fishing in coastal waters near the village, or in offshore open waters and on coral reefs, but still returning home on the same day. This type of activity includes handlining (missi), trolling (tonda), and spearing (sapa) from canoes to catch reef fish or pelagics such as tuna, mackerel, squid and octopus. Various netting methods are used, some of which involve small groups of people using different types of throw net (ringgi, tokong, jalla) or engaging in fish drives (ngambai). Spear gun fishing (pana) for lobster and fish is also undertaken either in the night or during the day. Women also fish from canoes using handlines, often go netting with family members, and accompany their husbands on nocturnal spear fishing expeditions.

Pongka refers to fishing in the sea or on a reef for a few days or a week, or sometimes several weeks, with a day or two travelling to reach a destination or return home. In the past, soppe or perahu lambo were the main craft used to carry out this activity, but nowadays small motorised vessels are also used. These expeditions can be all male affairs when they involve fishing for shark fin using longlines, netting reef fish, or collecting turtles around the Tukang Besi Islands. However, voyages may include whole families — even extended families — travelling to the offshore reefs in the Tukang Besi Archipelago and staying either on their boats or in small pile huts built over the reef. These huts are used as sleeping areas and as places to dry and process trepang, clams or reef fish.

Marine products are utilised in three main ways: for food and domestic use; to supply the local market through sale or barter; or being sold to traders who supply external domestic and international markets. Local fishing is conducted all year round, weather permitting. At certain times, notably during the west monsoon and rainy season, it is restricted by poor weather conditions and this results in a general shortage of fish for home consumption. The best time for harvesting the offshore reefs is during the latter months of the east monsoon when weather conditions are calm and the sea is like glass.

Although fishing is the basis of the Bajo economy, income is also derived from other maritime activities. Men engage in boat building and the associated trade in timber and canoe blanks. Both men and women trade in marine products other than fish, including the collection of coral rocks from local fringing reefs for sale as building material. Women engage in daily economic activities to help with the household income, and in some cases they provide a more regular income than their husbands and sons. Small-time trading — especially the buying and reselling of goods from homes or kiosks — is the activity most popular with village women.

Tukang Besi Bajo also engage in nomadic fishing expeditions further afield. The term ‘nomadic’ here relates to the regular seasonal migration of individuals and households to distant regions (Lenhart 1995: 245). A large proportion of the male population of Mola and Mantigola spend weeks, months or years living on boats, making voyages around Indonesia and beyond to search for a living (mencari nafkah). The acquisition of sea-going watercraft enables Bajo to engage in long-distance voyaging to fish for a range of marine products including shark fin, trepang, trochus shell, turtle, and tuna. This kind of long-distance economic activity is called lama.

Lama is both a noun (‘sail’) and a verb (‘to sail’). The verb refers to sailing voyages or journeys made in boats to destinations both within and outside Indonesia for the purposes of fishing, carrying cargo, or buying and selling goods. These voyages can last for periods of months or even years. Lama includes fishing voyages to the waters of northern Australia but other destinations include West Papua, Maluku, Bali, Malaysia and Singapore. Nowadays, the term lama is also applied to voyages made with motorised vessels.

Shark fishing was traditionally conducted with handlines (koelangan tansi) consisting of a length of nylon line with a wire trace, a lead weight and hook, connected to a wooden reel with a flat wooden base. This inexpensive equipment, costing only a few thousand rupiah to make, is assembled by the fishermen themselves. Sharks are attracted with rattles called gogoro or gorogoro. These are made from a length of bamboo split at one end. Six half coconut shells are then threaded onto a piece of bamboo fitted horizontally into the split end of the stem. Shaken in the water continuously, the noise of the clacking coconut shells attracts shark to the surface. They are then caught using a baited line and hauled onto the deck. The fins are removed and laid out to dry in the sun and in some cases the carcass flesh is retained, cut into strips, salted and dried.

In addition to shark fin fishing in the Timor and Arafura seas during 1994–95, men from Mola and Mantigola also undertook voyages of one to three months, in motorised boats with minimal sailing power (both perahu layar motor or kapal layar motor), to collect green turtle (bokko) (Chelonia mydas) from various other locations. These expeditions took them to the islands in Maluku (including the Aru Islands), to the coast of West Papua, and to some atolls and reefs in the Flores Sea. The turtles were brought back in the hull of the boat, transferred to holding pens, and then loaded onto a large motor boat and transported to the market at Benoa in Bali where they were finally sold. ^[4] Another alternative activity was tuna fishing, which might be regarded as a newer form of larger-scale commercial fishing for the Bajo, but is still essentially based on their flexibility and mobility. A number of motor boats from Mola worked for a Kendari-based Japanese fishing company. These vessels travelled to Kupang twice a year, using it as a base from which to catch tuna with hook and line in the Savu Sea in East Nusa Tenggara. Around the same time one or two Mola boats embarked on a trading trip to the Banggai Islands in Southeast Sulawesi to sell a load of cassava. Some men from Mola also joined vessels belonging to Tukang Besi Bajo on trading voyages to Singapore and Malaysia to buy second-hand goods which were then resold in Wanci.

Distant shore fishing activity is undertaken all year round. Travel is undertaken when there are breaks in the weather during the squally west monsoon months and the beginning of the east monsoon that also brings strong winds, but there is always a higher risk associated with sailing at these times. ^[5] Distant shore voyaging is commonly undertaken from July through December, although some voyages also occur at the end of the west monsoon. With the advent of larger motor boats such as those used to collect turtles, there is less restriction on travelling during unfavourable monsoonal wind conditions. The danger is partly due to the fact that no life-saving equipment is kept on board.

Most adult Bajo males have participated in a fishing or trading voyage to various destinations in Indonesia or beyond at some time in their life, and some from an early age. Sailing is almost a rite of passage for many young males. However, not all men voyage each season, nor do they necessarily travel to the same destination. Some men alternate between various activities. Shifts in voyaging patterns can be the result of available finances, market prices and demand, restrictions on access to particular fishing grounds, and changes in social and cultural circumstances.

Amongst the Mola and Mantigola Bajo some broad distinctions are evident in modes of livelihood. There is a specific core group of Bajo from Mantigola, Mola Selatan, and to a lesser extent Mola Utara, who embark on voyages regularly every year. However, some prefer to remain in Mola and fish the local coastal waters and offshore coral reefs for their main source of income, only occasionally joining a perahu on a fishing expedition outside the region to pay off debts or because of lack of other local alternatives.

An indication of the diverse maritime activities and differences between the types of fishing activities pursued by Bajo from Mola Selatan and Mola Utara is given in Table 3-1. This shows three main types of boats and their distribution by ownership in Mola Utara and Mola Selatan.

Table 3-1: Number of boats according to type in Mola Selatan and Mola Utara, 31 May to 5 June 1994.

These results show that nearly all perahu lambo and soppe, and even a majority of motorised vessels, are owned by people living in Mola Selatan. ^[6] They also indicate a general distinction between the types of fishing activities pursued by the two communities. Mola Selatan Bajo generally still use soppe to fish around the Tukang Besi Islands, whereas Mola Utara Bajo do not. It would appear that Mola Utara Bajo used to own just as many perahu lambo as their counterparts in Mola Selatan, but they decided to adopt motorised vessels to pursue other activities such as turtle collecting, carrying cargo, and tuna fishing. The majority of the Mola Selatan Bajo originally came from Mantigola, have been voyaging to the north Australian region for many decades, and are said to have a preference for sailing to Australian waters. In contrast, the original Mola Utara Bajo generally do not have a documented history of voyaging.

Bajo from Mola and Mantigola have been using a net fishing technique known as ngambai on reefs in the Timor Sea since the early decades of this century, and this is probably the earliest type of gear which they used in that area. While long-distance fishing methods and target catches have changed in recent years, this netting technique is still practised by Bajo from Mola Selatan and Mola Utara on outlying reefs in the Tukang Besi Islands to collect fish for local sale. In 1995 there were five ngambai fishing groups operating out of Mola, and when I visited Pepela in 1994, I found that one perahu had used ngambai gear at Scott Reef after engaging in shark fishing and returned with a catch of dried reef fish which they sold to local Rotinese buyers. Occasionally, a group of Bajo from Tanjung Pasir used this gear on the reef in Pepela Bay, but the catch was relatively poor.

The technique can be described essentially as a fish drive requiring around 8–11 people and requires a range of equipment: two lengths of rope (tali ambai) (300–500 depa in length) with pieces of wood (tangkal) attached along the rope at intervals; up to seven nylon nets (ringgi ogah) joined together, with floats (patau) made from foam and old thongs attached at intervals along the top, and tiger cowrie shells (bolleh) spaced at intervals along the bottom; another type of drawstring net (bandong); wooden stakes (ballas); a scoop net (bandre); at least two canoes (lepa); spearguns (panah); and goggles (kacamata). According to Akmad, a full set of ngambai nets and ropes costs approximately Rp 1 500 000.^[7]

A ngambai crew will depart Mola in a small motor boat around three or four o’clock in the morning and travel for two or three hours to Kapota or Kaledupa reef. On arrival there, a fishing spot is chosen, usually in about 1–2 metres of water, the boat is anchored and all the gear is loaded into the two canoes. Both canoes, with half the crew in each, row to the place chosen under the guidance of the leader and set up the gear. The fish are scared towards the net and eventually trapped. All the gear is then disassembled and transported back to the boat. The entire procedure takes around two and a half hours and is usually undertaken twice in a day. The fish species caught in this way include Scaridae (parrot fish), Labridae (wrasse), Acanthuridae (surgeon fish), and Siganidae (rabbit fish). On the trip back to Mola the captain supervises the division of the fish catch on the deck of the perahu. On arriving in Mola women sell the catch either in the village or at the market.

According to Si Akmad, an unidentified species of timber (kayu pijarang) was formerly used instead of thongs and foam to make the floats on the nets, while the bark of another tree species (bagu) was beaten, treated and made into twine to weave the nets themselves. ^[8] Since the bagutree is not found on the Tukang Besi Islands, the material was purchased from traders or from other Bajo living in Southeast and Central Sulawesi. The drawstring net (bandong) has only been used to take the fish from the net-pole encirclement since the 1970s; before that, the Bajo used tuba (Derris or Milletia spp.) to stupefy the fish. ^[9] According to Si Akmad, the catch from ngambai fishing in the Timor Sea was divided in much the same way as it is today: one share for each crew member, one share for the owner of each piece of net (ringgi), one share for each rope (tali ambai), half a share for each canoe and three shares for the perahu.