300 foreign vessels looting North Sumatra fishing areas
300 foreign vessels looting North Sumatra fishing areas
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Around 300 foreign vessels believed to be from Thailand are
looting fish stocks in North Sumatran waters and robbing local
fishermen of their livelihoods, according to Governor T. Rizal
Nurdin.
Rizal urged the central government to take action against the
illegal foreign vessels he said were operating off the western
coast of North Sumatra.
"The arresting of these fishermen is wholly the responsibility
of the Navy," Rizal told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
He said the foreign fleet had been plaguing the local fishing
industry for "quite some time", but he fell short of saying how
much had been inflicted in losses.
According to government estimates, losses from illegal fishing
nationwide could reach up to US$4 billion a year. These were a
combination of losses from illegal foreign vessels and the
violation of export regulations by local fishing vessels.
Indonesia's own fishing exports stood at just $1.17 billion
last year, down slightly from export sales in 2000.
By law, foreign fishing vessels may enter Indonesian waters.
However, they must pay a fee to the government.
Government officials said that many foreign vessels purchased
fishing licenses from local fishing companies to avoid paying the
fee. Many of these local fishing companies were only phony
companies, set up as a front to sell permits to foreign vessels.
Secretary to the All-Indonesian Fishermen's Union (HNSI),
Sibolga Kastamansyah, said the organization frequently informed
the government about the presence of illegal foreign vessels in
North Sumatran waters.
"But we haven't seen any results. Neither has any concrete
actions been taken by the authorities," he said.
Kastamansyah said the vessels from Thailand had been operating
in their area for several years without interference from the
government.
Using trawls, the illegal vessels not only catch mature fish
but immature fish, thus effectively cutting supply to
unsustainable levels.
"We feel that the lot of the fisherman is getting worse by the
year," Kastamansyah said.
Last year, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin
Dahuri said his office had prepared a set of measures to curb
illegal fishing by foreign vessels.
Among the measures was the registering of fishing vessels
operating here and the use of tracking devices through a
satellite link to filter out illegal vessels from the legitimate
ones.
This way, he said, he expected to reduce by 25 percent the
4,900 fishing vessels that were operating illegally in Indonesian
waters.