Updated

Fishers in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia say rough seas are keeping them ashore and shrinking their catches as El Niño strengthens, according to early local monitoring and interviews reported by Mongabay on October 29, 2026. Yustinus Pesireron, a 64-year-old fisherman from Kaibobo village on Seram island, told Mongabay he had not been to sea for almost a month. The account links the disruption to El Niño conditions affecting the region's fisheries.