Analysis of Site Suitability for Sustainable Marine Culture at Karimunjawa National Park

Karimunjawa Marine National Park has a variety of ecosystems and abundant resources which can be used for many kinds of activities. In order to avoid overlaping spatially, it is necessary to conduct a research focusing on analysis of site suitability, mainly for marine culture utilization. This research was conducted for 12 months and aimed to define site suitability for marine culture utilization including seaweed, grouper fish, and sea cucumber culture. The results showed that nearly all islands are suitable and appropriate for seaweed culture or grouper fish by using cage culture method. On the other hand, for sea cucumbers cultivation is only suitable and appropriate in Menjangan Besar island and Menjangan Kecil island, as well as narrow areas in Karimunjawa and Kumbang islands. The result of spatially overlay analysis on site suitability for those three marine cultures showed that suitability class category S1 having the largest area is the site for seaweed culture which extends to 2.765,19 ha (40,75%). Then, suitability class S2 for grouper fish culture extends to 2.107,04 ha (31,05 %), suitability class S2 for seaweed culture extends to1.068,88 ha (15,75 %), and suitability class S1 for grouper fish culture extends to 697,87 ha (10,28 %). Suitability class N or unsuitable for marine culture utilization extends only 46,27 ha or 0,69 %. The results suggest that the policy for aquaculture development at Karimunjawa water should be prioritised for seaweed culture.