Keramba Maninjau

Keramba or karamba in Minang dialect is one of the technique to farm fish in a floating cage made from bamboo or wood frames and nets, usually done at river or lake where the current flow is not so strong. Karamba is very popular among local fishermen living nearby the Maninjau Lake (West Sumatra) since it was introduced in 1992. There are currently 15000 karambas and 4000 fishermen, occupying some parts of the 9950 hectares lake.

Here are some pictures to share during our labor day holiday on early May 2008. It is always a busy sunset everyday when the local fishermen sorting the LIVE fishes, filling the water to the plastic buckets, oxygenating the buckets (normally 2/3 of the bucket is reserved for the oxygen especially for long distance route), air-tight sealing the buckets, and loading them onto the lorry that will transport them to the awaiting fishmongers.









Maninjau is the second largest lake in West Sumatra, after Singkarak Lake (12,969 hectare), lying on 461.50 meters above sea level, and located at Kecamatan Tanjung Raya, Kabupaten Agam. Distances from popular resort: 147 km north from Padang, 36 km west from Bukittinggi, and 27 km from Lubuak Basuang (capital of Agam). Since 1983 the water has been used to generate 68 megawatts hydroelectric power for the region, although the current capacity is only half of the expected. Uncontrolled fish farming is accused as one of the reason causing productivity decrease of the generator turbines (algae, fish food residue, fish waste, chemical compound in the water, etc).

Statistics are noted from here.