Leaky bodies: masculinity and risk in the practice of cyanide fishing in Indonesia

Abstract

Dive fishing with cyanide is known as a risky fishing practice, as it pushes or lures divers to the limits of what their bodies can take. Its association with physical danger is linked to a culture of machismo and a coming-of-age process in which young men prove their bravery and become part of a shared manhood. What often remains implicit in the understanding of risk-seeking activities is the notion of body and masculinity that such practices entail and produce. Understanding risk and how it relates to masculinity in native terms requires conceptual tools to think beyond the self-contained body that navigates an external environment. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia, this article explores cyanide dive fishing in the context of risky practice in relation to the body as contingent, permeable and leaky. Drawing from situated narratives and post-human phenomenology, the article makes room for masculinities beyond the self-contained man by describing dive fishing as a transformative process of becoming fluid to a submerged world of currents and spirits. By showing how this process brings bodies to or beyond their threshold of endurance, the article sheds light on the situated vulnerabilities of dive fishers in an environment of exploitation.

Compliance, Complexity and Cephalopods- Disaggregated Responses to Participatory Marine Conservation & Management

“…These type of results re ect other cases of non-compliance by 'men' of different types in SSF interventions, including skin divers (e.g. Fabinyi, 2007Fabinyi, , 2012Rohe et al, 2017;Pauwelussen, 2021). Our Divers as a group require attention for their prominent role in and reactions to non-compliance.…”

Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography of the Undersea?

“…"Masculinity" refers to the set of values related to physical or moral attributes constructed and perceived as virile, likely to be reified by reference to the "femininity" it excludes. In body and mind, commercial diving training forms "the man [as] the sex which risks life and in so doing, achieves its existence" (Haraway [1984(Haraway [ ] 2003, and risk-seeking itself entails a notion of masculinity for divers (Pauwelussen 2022). This selfaccomplishment is thus realized through the domination of the water as part of the construction and reproduction of masculinity among commercial divers.…”

“…Yet, as demonstrated by existing feminist studies that engage with men-dominated physical activities (e.g., Olive and Thorpe 2011), such fields highlight different ethical questions and concerns that feminist researchers are likely to experience compared to women-dominated fields (such as how to handle sexism without compromising the field). Moreover, feminist studies of predominantly masculine professions in the maritime field (e.g., Alonso 2022; Pauwelussen 2022) have emphasized that developing an ethnography of a community of men wherein the creation and reproduction of masculinity frame their activities and relationships with their environment requires not only critical reflexivity of the operations of exclusion and oppression within the field, as expected from any feminist ethnography (Faria and Mollett 2016), but also a rigorous analysis of these operations over the ethnographic knowledge produced. Experiencing gender-based violence and being exposed to increased risks during fieldwork due to the ethnographer’s gender and body require intellectual honesty to emphasize painful situations (if not situations lived as humiliating), considering these situations actively shape the understanding of the field’s social dynamics.…”

“…As mentioned at the beginning of this article, values and attributes such as physical strength, the pride to overcome pain and develop endurance in underwater work, and the overall valorization of such masculine attributes are important parts of the profession of commercial diving—which is similar to other men-dominated professions. For example, as for military service people, astronauts, and cyanide fishers (e.g., Higate and Hopton 2005; Patarin-Jossec 2020a; Pauwelussen 2022), the training of commercial divers includes the embodiment and celebration of values and social representations of what being “virile” means through the constant intertwining of athletic skills and values. During the commercial diving training, several of my classmates were actively engaged in intense muscle-building training: They were up at 5:00 in the morning to spend an hour or two at the gym before they started the day (the sport being prohibited after diving due to the risk of saturation accidents), and they carefully measured and selected their food in addition to taking mass-gainer supplements.…”

Catching Dory: Selling Aquarium Fish Supports Coastal Livelihoods in Indonesia

“…However, one concern with catching this species in the Banggai Archipelago is the observed behavior of shers pulling up entire coral heads on which the goby congregate to deposit them more easily into the "serok" net they use to catch the individuals, which is likely to result in the mortality of the coral colony, leading to a decline in live coral cover and habitat niches for coral-associated sh . Another caveat is that, while targeting yellow goby may appeal to shers lacking access to the equipment needed to catch blue tang, other shers may prefer to focus on blue tang, due to its higher value as well as the adventure and bravado associated with catching species via compressor diving (Pauwelussen, 2021).…”