Sunrise casts a warm glow, blanketing the local fishing harbour. A heavy scent of clove cigarettes lingers in the air. Navigating from one vibrantly painted fishing boat to another, I finally receive a thumbs-up and an ‘okay’ from Ilham, a local shark researcher and my guide for the week. Barefoot on the salt-worn wooden planks, I stand, rocking gently on a fishing boat that promises to reveal both the horrors and hopes for critically endangered sharks and rays.

In the remote coastal region of Northern Sumatra, I begin my journey to uncover a unique bond between fishers and scientists working together for a healthier ocean. The initiative, ‘Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan‘ (KUL), which means ‘Togetherness for the Ocean’ in Indonesian, is quietly reshaping shark conservation, offering a glimmer of hope against extinction. Indonesia, the world’s largest shark fishing nation, faces a pressing conservation challenge. Critically Endangered sharks and rays such as scalloped hammerheads and wedgefish are frequently caught as valuable bycatch, pushing them to the brink of extinction. KUL addresses this issue by compensating fishers to release these endangered species, providing a beacon of hope for marine life and a lifeline for coastal communities. KULs vision is clear: to save sharks, you must also help humans.

In the bustling backstreets of Canggu, Bali, I chat with Hollie Booth, a British conservation scientist and founder of KUL. She emphasises the importance of understanding fishers’ perspectives: “We need innovative approaches to solve these issues.” By working closely with local fishers, KUL promotes effective conservation while improving human well-being. It’s one of the first incentive-based marine conservation projects in the world, and the first to use a randomised control trial to evaluate its impacts. They collect data on catches of Endangered species and fishers’ well-being from participating and non-participating boats and compare the two groups to evaluate outcomes. Early data indicates that KUL’s compensate-to-release programme incentivises conservation actions whilst supporting fisher wellbeing. Additionally, fishers report positive perceptions of the programme even when they are not participating. As these trials continue, the data collected will shape the future of the project and influence other shark conservation initiatives.

In a remote village in Aceh Jaya, laughter echoes throughout the weathered wooden fishing hut as I sit down for a strong Acehnese coffee with local fishers. Armed with Google Translate and scribbles in my notebook, I talk with Hasbi, a local KUL fisher and the Panglima Laot (Commander of the Sea – a customary leader of fishers in Aceh). He emphasises that safeguarding the local environment is ingrained in their ancestral legacy. “If we take care of the Ocean, the Ocean will take care of us,” he says, viewing KUL as essential for the survival of both sharks and their community.

Hollie explains that while sharks and rays are not the primary target for the fishers, they “hang out where the other fish hang out”, which means they often become entangled in fishers’ nets and lines. Then, because they have market value, the sharks and rays are kept to be eaten or sold, forming an important part of small-scale fishers’ livelihoods. For KUL’s programme to succeed, correct compensation is crucial; too little fails to incentivise releases, while too much may encourage targeting. Research indicates that compensating fishers at around $1 per hammerhead and $5-7 per wedgefish hits the ‘sweet spot’. In consumer markets in China and Hong Kong, large wedgefish fins can fetch hundreds of dollars, since they are considered high quality ‘king of shark fin’ containing large amounts of tissue that can be used to make shark fin soup. Here in Aceh, juveniles are primarily caught, which have small fins with lower value. The remaining meat often appears in fish curries at roadside ‘Waroeng’ restaurants.