$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