Indonesia's Green Mussel Harvesters Face Poisonous Waters and Debt Traps

These grain muscles are popular food across Indonesia, but the day they come from is full of mercury, lead, and sewage that's slowly killing the muscles. Now, divers like Tajudine can't easily find them. If it's for change, it's really drastic change. To survive, many fishermen are turning to predatory online lenders, sometimes based in China and the US. They charge high interest, trapping people like in a cycle of debt. You pay first, that's how it's called. Pay it off. If you pay it off, you can't leave work from here.

The coral is hard to open using a knife, your hands are bleeding, try it yourself, it's up to you, the important thing is that your hands can get a lot quickly. How did one of Indonesia's most popular seafoods become part of a system of modern day slavery? And as the sea grows poisonous, what happens to the people who still depend on it? This is one of Jakarta's poorest areas. Locals call this neighborhood green muscle village after the life thats

sayaupas karang hijjau from the age of 8 years every years he sat beside his mother racing at K. When he first opened the shell of a clam, it felt difficult, the shell was hard. It took me a while to be able to open it myself without my mother's help. Just me. Actually, from kindergarten there are also orders to sit down. If he has three children, he helps two. Here it is. It is permissible to raise a person's body, which is sore, hunched over, and whose hands are injured. any other pity seeing mother always opening green mussels So do you think children should work? Yes were pulled from the bay by his fatherold. On the edges of the coast there are lots of white shells, blood shells, stuck together like this. much more,

yes, if I personally say that fear does exist, yes, at the beginning of learning, I even panicked, yes, whether I like it or not, whether it's good or bad, I just keep at it rather than being unemployed. There are no other professions, side jobs or anything like that. I decided I'd stop working at sea. he works on a line of booies anchored by ropes to the seabed. The creatures cling to the lines, growing in tight clusters. Didrodine sometimes swims down 15 feet to reach them. The shells are razor sharp, so divers wear gloves to protect their hands.

Thjene stays under for about 45 minutes at a time until his basket is full. He will sell the muscles back to his boss who owns this farm. repeatedly, not just once or twice, which makes us tired and exhausted, sometimes even making it hard to breathe. In a single day, divers make this trip down and back up about a dozen times. While he's diving, only air comes through a thin tube connected to this rusty compressor that often breaks down. Often, for months, years, you've become accustomed to it, so it's considered normal. Even I had a time when I almost did n't exist, I almost didn't exist. When I took a deep breath, I was almost out of breath When I got on the boat, I

immediately became really smart. yes, if this is indeed this is what is going on like this, I'm used to it often, the scars have now returned to normal, but the skin is not normal, but what do we so we're already adapting to the language, right? The native green muscl on the other hand are struggling to survive in the polluted jaard bay. They are filter feeders which means they survive by sucking food particles even toxic ones from the water but they have limits too. When muscles absorb too much heavy metals like lead and mercury, they become deformed and can stop reproducing. At one point researchers found deformities in about 60% of the muscles farmed in this bay. Eventually populations begin to decline and so do the incomes of these fishermen who are

forced to take out loans just to get by. Two years ago, Juden borrowed the equivalent of a couple hundred dollars from an online lending service to pay for his children's schooling and other household bills. But he had to put up his boat as collateral. The deal was pay back $58 a month. He isn't sure what the interest was, but experts say some online lenders charge up to 60% due with each monthly installment. If Tajudine missed three payments, he'd lose the boat. At that time, the deposits were a bit stagnant because we wouldn't be able to get any more from the sea. They suffer from high unemployment because of the severe environmental degradation.

The bank itself sees that those kinds of areas are very risky. So it's very hard for them to apply for the bank loan. That's why workers have turned to online lenders instead. Between 2018 and 2025 the amount Indonesians borrowed annually from these services jumped from about $220 million to $5 billion. But many of these services are illegal and have ties to companies or operators abroad in places like China, Singapore, and the United States. They've stepped in to offer small loans, often just a few hundred that traditional banks typically won't provide. The Indonesian government can't do much because the money moves through informal transfer systems and middle men. So, it's hard to trace. The loans often come with steep interests

to pay off. So when there is an overseas platform, of course they don't have an office, they don't have employees in Indonesia, they try to use the third party de collector which is very dangerous and then they use the third party to harass physically. Daudin has experienced that first. How is this language? It's not that I almost forgot, the point is that he was a bit challenging. It's a bit like this, usually the language is a bit challenging. Well, at that time I was discussing with my wife, "What do you think, Mak? This seems like the words are already not very pleasant. Jakarta Bay is earth.

Rivers are waste, dense industrial neighborhoods. You can see that there is plastic waste, organic waste, and carcass waste. How did Jakarta Bay end up becoming a kind of, in our terms, a giant sewer. So it's like a giant waste disposal. Because he just passed the law in 2020. It was meant to create jobs by attracting foreign investors. But critics say it prioritized economic growth at the expense of environmental accountability. And that's one reason many factories that pollute never get audited or penalized. But that pollution has killed off at least 50% of fish species in Jakarta Bay since the 1970s and about two-thirds of shellfish since the 1930s.

North Jakarta Coast. Well, then when the variations disappeared, then some survived, eh, many of them So, what's still surviving is mostly green coral. Well, that could also be a sign that the quality of the environment, the quality of the ecosystem in the area, is already bad. To catch the same amount of muscles, all to pay off the debt they owe to their bosses. Experts say this is a form of modern-day slavery. Workers have no way of fighting back. 90% of them don't have written work contracts, so their bosses can get away with underpaying them.

Did, for example, collect 15 socks a day but is paid only 74. We often correct ourselves, get angry with ourselves, think introspectively, why am I always like this? Can't develop in life. Why can't I be like other people, like my friends? I actually really want that. I usually go to factories like this one where workers boil them. Inside these giantrons, heat kills the muscles and their shelves pop open, making them easier to shock. Yes, if someone new comes, they say it smells like that. Why does it smell like this? But if someone is used to it, no. It smells of money.

Judin's wife, C, has been peeling muscles at this factory for 12 years. She took the job after her husband's income could no longer feed the family. Now she helps keep food on the table. But when money runs short, Csb, as her husband, borrows. There are a lot of them, but they don't tell me. HB says she tried to avoid borrowing from her because she knows that kind of loan keeps workers at this factory. She wanted to go to a big bank, but the requirements were too complicated. Borrowing from neighbors and relatives wasn't available.

The service that caused her husband their boat. She put up her motorcycle as collateral, the one her family would use to transport muscles. That allowed her to take out $90. She had to pay it back within six months Cut it off a month, set it aside for a month, there are lots of them. The debt collector kept calling. " Mom, if you don't pay by this date, it'll be taken." Yes, yes, yes. After a while, he came home, asking for more and more. He cried, his motorcycle was taken, crying Yes, just take a class.

Indonesiancial said it works until 9 p.m. is gone. The muscles she peels now just go toward paying back her debt. Without cash coming in, can't even afford basic things like to treat the cuts and her get from shing all day. Most give if there's diesel at the stall, give diesel, pour it, it's gone. Sometimes I feel sad because there's no snack for her. and pays her by the kilo. Sometimes when the haul is smaller, CT won't make more than $2 a day. The muscles arrive at larger factories where they're washed and sold for 17 cents per kilogram, but they're dangerous to eat.

Microplastics and heavy metals in many of the muscles. Jam-jat contained in the shells, when we eat them, will they enter our bodies like that? Because this is a challenge for them. First, about contamination like that. First, this ultimately reduces the quality of their green mussels, that's the impact on them. So these shells, eh, are lacking in demand e in the end like that. Much cheaper than beef, eggs, and sometimes even chicken. That's why people still buy them. Even restaurants like this one where they are fresh.

Good clams are clams, yes, none of them are dead, they are still tight. E new is even better, it's just risen, right? Ahmadin has been preparing them at seafood for years. He can and it doesn't take that long. It's ready to serve in under 5 minutes. So for people in the lower middle class, maybe he can buy our products to enjoy eating at Babe sifood's house Abdurahman eats about a special for me. Yes, when we bite into it, it's chewy and savory, crispy-krispy like that Right, the fertilizer is like that. Then when we eat it, it's like eating peanuts. So it's like not wanting to stop until it's finished. But lately, eating his favorite dish has raised a question he can no longer

ignore. What is this costing his body? C has those same concerns sometimes as she prepares muscles for her family. But the foods them by grocery money runs the point of being grateful what God gives, what we get. Be grateful. No matter how much wealth you have, if you're not grateful, it's gone. That's it. Muscell, right? They don't understand, but sometimes they like to say, "Well, there's no boat." They say that. Then, if there's no motorbike, you can't go to the village, you can't use a motorbike, you can't go anywhere, right? Okay, I'll buy another one later. Mom's the one who's looking for a cellphone.

I see my children's faces, they seem to feel sorry for me. God willing, I'll just be patient, I'll save up and buy another one later. Buying home decorations, flowers, a cupboard, a TV. What makes you happiest every day? Playing with friends in the field.