War on poachers

War on poachers

Indonesia sends another explosive message to illegal fishing boat operators, most of them foreign.

It was no April Fool's Day joke last week when Indonesian authorities dispatched 81 illegal fishing boats to the bottom of the sea simultaneously at 12 locations across the country.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, in another show of force to reassert her ministry's tough stance against illegal fishing, led the blowing up and sinking of the vessels, 75 of which were foreign, from Ambon province which is close to the Arafura Sea in the eastern part of the country.

"This is to tell the people that there was a time when thousands of foreign vessels came to steal our fish and now they know that Indonesia can actually combat such a crime," she said in a statement after leading the April 1 operation that stretched from the Natuna Islands on Indonesia's northernmost maritime frontier and borders the South China Sea, where most of the ships -- 29 -- were destroyed.

The Natuna Sea and the Arafura Sea are both fertile fishing grounds and often infested with illegal fishing boats, to the growing consternation of Indonesian authorities.

Yunus Husein, the deputy head of Task Force 115, which was set up to combat illegal fishing, said the country's eastern waters were still prone to illegal fishing. By choosing to lead the operation from Ambon, the ministry wanted to reaffirm that illegal fishing should no longer take place in the Arafura Sea. It also aimed to show support to the Indonesian Navy's Eastern Fleet and other law enforcement agencies in the eastern region to take firm measures in deterring poachers.

"We hope Sino serves as a symbol of our victory against fish plunderers, after years of defeat, especially in eastern Indonesia," Ms Susi said, referring to the two ships, Sino 26 and Sino 35, that were sunk in the waters of Tihlepuai off Morella village in Ambon.

The ships' names indicated a relation to China, and Mr Yunus confirmed that the Indonesian-flagged vessels were owned by an Indonesian company with a Chinese investor.

To date, Indonesia has sunk 317 illegal fishing vessels since October 2014 and most of them were from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam with 142 vessels, the Philippines (76), Thailand (21) and Malaysia (49). The toll also includes 21 Indonesian vessels and others from Papua New Guinea, China, Belize and some that were unregistered in any country.

Previous vessel destruction exercises took place last year on Aug 18 when 38 boats where sunk in three different spots, and on April 5 with 23 vessels -- 13 from Vietnam and 10 from Malaysia -- destroyed in seven locations across the country, as well as the Viking, a Nigerian-flagged poaching vessel that had been on Interpol's wanted list since 2013 for poaching protected species in remote waters of the Antarctic.

In the year to March 21, the ministry's patrol boats have apprehended 40 illegal fishing boats, which included 36 from Vietnam while the rest were from the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Poaching fish in Indonesian waters is a crime punishable by maximum six years in prison and a maximum fine of 20 billion rupiah (US$1.5 million).

"Illegal fishing is rampant in Indonesian waters because we have not been able to tap this potential resource," Akhmad Solihin, a lecturer at Bogor Agricultural University's School of Fisheries and Maritime Sciences, told Asia Focus.

While he agrees that blowing up illegal boats could create a deterrent effect to poachers, he urged the government to improve the investigation procedures with regard to foreign craft to ensure that the legal process is conducted fairly, and especially to provide proper translators for foreign seamen.

"I think the best solution to combat illegal fishing is by forging bilateral relations with fishing poachers' countries of origin, so those countries' governments could prosecute the fishing companies or fishing boat owners to pay compensation to Indonesia for poaching in our waters," Mr Akhmad said.

However, Abdul Halim, the director of the Jakarta-based advocacy group Maritime Studies Center for Humanity, is not convinced that the get-tough stance will be able to completely rid Indonesian waters of poaching.

"In reality, there are still plenty of foreign fishing poachers traversing our waters," he told Asia Focus, adding that the crackdowns so far has not resulted in Indonesian fishermen getting bigger catches.

"Even if there were some increase, it's only in certain locations and it could not be generalised to all 11 designated fishing areas in the country," he added.

While Ms Susi and her ministry seemed to be gaining ground in combatting foreign poachers, he said local fishermen were not able to yield much from the country's abundant fishing resources. This is because of a ministerial regulation that prohibits the use of trawling nets and dragnet fishing as well as bombs that damage coral reefs within Indonesian waters.

"There is no solution in terms of what fishermen can use to catch fish in place of the prohibited nets," Mr Abdul said.

Viva Yoga Mauladi, a lawmaker on the House of Representatives commission that oversees maritime affairs, called on the government to review the regulation given the widespread opposition of the fishing community. In place of the prohibited nets, the regulation stipulates that fishermen can only use more environmentally friendly gill nets.

After visiting a coastal community in Lamongan in East Java on March 31, he said that fishermen in Lamongan were refusing to use the recommended gill net.

"They have been using trawling nets and dragnets for a long time and they don't want to use the gill net as it only incurs losses for them," Mr Viva said.

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