Deadline set for North Sumatra unregistered fishing boats
Deadline set for North Sumatra unregistered fishing boats
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The North Sumatran authorities have issued a final ultimatum to more than 12,600 fishing vessels that lack the necessary documents to fish in the province's waters, saying that any vessels ignoring the warning will be arrested.
Ridwan Batubara, chief of the North Sumatra provincial fishing agency, said that 12,600 of the 14,000 vessels fishing the province's waters had yet to be registered in Belawan seaport, or licensed by the provincial fishing authorities.
"We will give the illegal fishing vessels one-and-a-half months until Dec. 31, 2001 to register themselves and obtain licenses from the relevant authorities. From Jan. 1, 2002 onwards, all fishing vessels in the province must have the necessary documents as required by law," he said here over the weekend.
Ridwan said that all fishing vessels were obliged to have the necessary documents so as to assist tax collection by the local administration, and to help eliminate piracy and smuggling in North Sumatran waters.
"So far, our local governments have collected only Rp 600 million of the Rp 850 million targeted from the fishing sector this year because most of the fishing vessels have yet to be registered," he said.
He said that rampant piracy and smuggling in North Sumatran waters also had a lot to do with the numerous unregistered fishing vessels.
"We have detected 47 piracy and smuggling cases in our waters over the last eleven months, and most of these involved the crew members of illegal fishing vessels," he said.
He claimed that many local fishermen had moved to Riau or Muara Baru in Jakarta because of the high incidence of piracy in North Sumatran waters.
First Lt. Arief, spokesman for the naval base in Belawan, said the Navy had yet to take firm measures against illegal fishing vessels as the provincial administration was still popularizing the registration program.
He claimed, however, that naval vessels based at Belawan had arrested dozens of illegal fishing boats whose crew members were involved in piracy and smuggling.
"Several cases have been brought to trial," he said.
Ibrahim A.S., the owner of an unregistered fishing vessel in Asahan, called on the government to take action against the local and foreign trawlers that, he claimed, were looting the province's marine resources.
"The regional authorities discriminate in enforcing the law as they don't arrest the local and foreign trawlers that are looting marine resources here," he said, alleging also that many fishermen from Thailand had passed on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to local people living in coastal areas.
He also asserted that many local trawlers were free to fish North Sumatran waters after bribing local officials.