BIOMES: “A fish called terubuk”: and other ways of knowing the edible ocean in Southeast Asia, Anthony Medrano, Assistant Professor of History, Brown University

From the Andaman Sea to the Digul estuary, Southeast Asia’s edible ocean is rich and productive. It teems with deeps, reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and rivermouths. And these habitats, in turn, abound with all kinds of more-than-human life (including spirits). Of particular significance, the region is home to more species of marine fish than anywhere else on the map. It is the epicenter of marine fish diversity (with over 3,300 types recorded). Javanese teri, Malay bilis, Iloko ipon, Burmese nga thalaut, and other members of the edible ocean have long provided essential services to communities and ecosystems, near and far. Southeast Asian fish were central to feeding the rise of Buddhist kingdoms, Muslim sultanates, and plantation worlds while seeding, also, the origins of megacities such as the planet’s most populous ibukota Jakarta. The work of fish, habitat, and ocean continues. In April 2026, NPR reported, “approximately half of the world’s global marine fish catch comes from the seas of Southeast Asia.” Yet as production and demand grow, so, too, does the region’s biodiversity crisis (one marked by decline, collapse, and loss). Beyond a language of statistics and models, this talk explores the story of a single fish species in the Melaka Straits. It follows the tale of terubuk across art, science, culture, and ecology to surface not only the relationships that these fish conjure but also, and more critically, the stakes for knowing the edible ocean should they go extinct.

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