Risk Mitigation & Recommendation

a. Risk Mitigation 
1. Adaptation process should be conducted prior to releasement to ensure that the eels are prepared enough to be released in new environment. This Adaptation process includes 2 activities: food 
adjustment and environmental acclimatization.
a. Food adjustment process may take 1-3 weeks, where evaluation should be conducted weekly. Natural foods (e.g. worms, small freshwater crabs, small fish, or freshwater shrimp) can be given to the eels proportionally to allow them to adapt with new type of foods.

b. Environmental acclimatization should be done in the targeted river. This process should be done prior to releasement process and may take 30 – 60 minutes to be completed.

2. Tagging process should be conducted in a controlled environment with adequate supporting facilities to minimize infection or other side effects from tagging. IFish demonstration site in Kaliwungu is a suitable location for this.

3. Regular community empowerment is needed to maintain local participation and monitor the stocking progress.

4. Stocking can be conducted during wet season to minimize water quality related issues (e.g. high salinity, low water level, etc.)

b. Recommendation
Based on the result of field assessment in Sukabumi District, there are 9 points of recommendations:
1. Cijalu River is the most suitable location for eel stocking.

2. Tagging is essentially needed for eel monitoring and evaluation process. In Cilacap, tagging process can be conducted in Ifish demonstration site in Kaliwungu, where supporting facilities and controlled environment are available and accessible.

3. IFish demonstration site is also a suitable location to conduct food acclimatization process (from artificial to natural food).

4. Community empowerment can be organized regularly by IFish though their monthly activity in Cilacap District. During this process, responsible community representatives will be encouraged to present and discuss monthly progress of post-stocking phase.

5. To improve community participation in the post-stocking phase, merchandises (e.g. shirts) can be provided as reward if a local find a tagged eel (after one-month period since stocking event) and report it to the Fisheries Office. This effort also allows IFish and Fisheries Office to collect monitoring data without conducting direct monitoring assessment. A reporting mechanism, which involve POKMASWAS, should be established, so that local fishers can report when they caught a tagged eel.

6. Stocking event can be conducted during wet season, where the water level in the river is high enough.

7. To produce a more wholistic monitoring data, a team of experts can be mobilized to directly to conduct direct monitoring measurement (through experimental fishing). It can be conducted 2 times a year

c. Follow-up Action
1. Preparation and implementation of eel tagging
2. Preparation and implementation of food adjustment
3. Preparation and implementation of ceremonial event
4. Community engagement and establishment of reporting mechanism with POKMASWAS