Abstract:
There are 5,856 fishermen in Padang, consist of 2,472 traditional fishermen and they are classified as poor fishermen. Various
programs have been launched by the government as an effort to help them to get out from the poverty. The programs such
as provision of aids for tools and fishing boats, revolving funds, help for Bantuan Modal Kerja Masyarakat Pesisir (MKPEMP),
and welfare of coastal communities motion program and Gerakan Pensejahteraan Masyarakat Pesisir (GEPEMP) have been
launched. However, the lives of fishing communities did not change from time to time. The purpose of this research are to
understand the internal factors that cause of fishermen poverty. Methods used for identifying the internal poverty causes
problems in the traditional fishermen in Padang are as follows: descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative by using primary data
from 100 fishermen and secondary data such as the ownership of fishing equipment, types of fishing gear owned, level of
education, the prevailing culture in the community, lifestyle, fisherman's wife job, and ownership of productive assets. Results
shown that 26 % fishermen do not have their own fishing gear, the dominant tools used are beach seine and hela 41%, gill net
34%, the level of education is low (53% graduated from the elementary school, 26% junior high school and 8% senior high
school ). Moreover, there are fishermen with no formal education and also there is traditional beleived that women are not
allowed to go to the sea. They are also prohibited to go to the sea at Friday noon, being arrogant and spoken the curse words.
The poverty is also caused by the lifestyle of the fishermen, as they used to do the gambling and alcohol drunk. Most of the
fisherman's wife are working as cake traders, processing fish and having small shop. In general, the fishermen have minimum
assets in the form of savings and gold.
