$4b worth of fish lost a year

$4b worth of fish lost a year

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: A senior government official has
expressed frustration with the way security authorities deal with
foreign fishermen and their vessels apprehended for poaching in
Indonesian waters.

"We have often gone through all the trouble of catching
poachers but they are released just like that, without undergoing
legal procedures," said Mustafa Abubakar, inspector general at
the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

Mustafa estimated that Indonesia suffered losses of up to US$4
billion a year from illegal poaching, and has failed to deal with
the problem properly.

"Just imagine that assets worth billions of dollars are being
stolen while we have only just got a $400 million loan after all
these painstaking efforts," he said, referring to the approval of
a loan disbursement by the International Monetary Fund.

Mustafa said the government had re-registered foreign fishing
vessels operating in Indonesia to facilitate stricter
supervision. --Antara