All aspects of the project, including those undertaken in two extensions, were completed successfully. The following results were reported at a baitfish workshop:
1) development and trial of a baitfish catch recording system in Bacan;
2) status of the baitfisheries in Sorong and Bacan were assessed and the current situation reported;
3) estimates of the number of 'bagans' that can be supported - hence the amount of bait for the tuna fleet, and the optimum size of the pole-and-line fleet in Bacan;
4) applicability of data to other Indonesia fisheries - hence building research capacity;
5) policy recommendations for conservation of baitfish (agreed and accepted by workshop participants).
The workshop provided an opportunity for industry and government to appraise research outcomes and management implications. Scientific results, their importance and implications for managing baitfish resources in eastern Indonesia were summarised in a special issue of the Indonesian Fisheries Research Journal, Vol. 4(2).
The project was then extended to examine baitfish resource utilisation in North Sulawesi and stock assessment in an enclosed bay (as recommended in the project review). The majority of project activities were successfully completed on time and as planned. However the period of the extension saw great political unrest and violence in eastern Indonesia, particularly in Maluku Province where much of the extension work focused. Fieldwork for the stock assessment in Ambon was abandoned after ethnic fighting and unrest. The work was completed in Bima Bay, Sumbawa but without the planned seasonal spread of sampling.
The project had strong cooperation from the fishing company Usaha Mina in both Sorong and Bacan, and this greatly assisted successful completion of the catch-monitoring component. The company realised the benefits it stood to gain from the research, however its operation ceased in Bacan because of the ethnic fighting.
Despite the political difficulties that diluted the overall impact of the project, the results have major implications for the pole-and-line fishery. They show that the shortage of bait for the fishery is related to operational inefficiency and not to the depression of the size of the resource. Lack of bait is often due to seasonal variation in anchovy food supply (plankton productivity) rather than overexploitation of the fishery.
The studies of the fate of the baitfish in the Bitung region in North Sulawesi showed that there was a drastic under-reporting of catches because of the system of levying taxes on fish production. This has wide implications throughout the country and suggests that actual production of fish, especially anchovies, may be up to nine times higher that reported in government statistics.