Ministry promise stern actions for illegal fishing

JAKARTA. After only a month in the job, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has unveiled her office’s findings on illegal, unreported and undocumented (IUU) fishing operations along the country’s sea borders.

Susi said the ministry’s use of radar technology was successful in identifying illegal fishing operations by foreign parties in Indonesian waters. “We know what they’re up to. They think we don’t [know]. Let them know that we see everything at sea, even the size of the ships,” she said on Friday.

According to the minister, the satellite images have shown evidence of irregular activities being conducted at sea, such as the open-sea transshipment of goods.

Susi cited as an example several small vessels surrounding a larger ship around the Natuna islands, which border the South China Sea. “Their modus operandi involves having large ships measuring up to 300 gross tons [GT] wait at the borders [to pick up the stolen goods],” she said.

The ministry is currently waiting for the Law and Human Rights Ministry to sign off a government regulation that would prohibit the open-sea transshipment of goods, citing indication of wide-scale illegal exports.

From the satellite observation recorded on Nov. 15, Susi said the government was thought to have incurred losses of Rp 82.32 billion (US$6.77 million ) per year from the 33 vessels operating in the waters around Sulawesi alone.

Of the 33 vessels recorded, four were small ships with a capacity of 60 tons of fish, while the 22 medium-sized units were able to store up to 745.14 tons of fish. Another two ships were identified as large vessels that could store more than 1,000 tons of goods.

Susi suggested that at a price of Rp 15,000 per kilogram of mackerel, the state could lose around Rp 13.72 billion from a single fishing operation. “Imagine how much we lose if they go out to sea six or seven times a year. That’s almost Rp 90 billion in just one area,” she said.

Furthermore, the ministry managed to capture five undocumented vessels measuring more than 100 GT around Natuna island waters on Nov. 19.

“At first glance, all those ships seem to belong to our fishermen. They fly our flag and have Indonesian names like KM Natuna, but it turns out all the operators are foreign,” she said.

Susi revealed that the 61 shipmates captured during the inspection were all citizens of Thailand, and were undergoing a verification process at the ministry’s marine resources monitoring station in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo, who was also present at the briefing, said that the government would take stern legal measures against such illegal activities, even heeding President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s call to sink the ships.

According to Article 69 of Law No. 45/2009 on fisheries, fishing operation patrol units are given the authority to implement special actions, such as the burning or sinking of foreign fishing ships caught in Indonesian territory, based on sufficient evidence and for the sake of duty. (Tama Salim)