Govt takes aim at illegal fishing

Govt takes aim at illegal fishing

JAKARTA (JP): The newly appointed Director General of
Fisheries, Rear Admiral F.X. Murdjijo, pledged yesterday to step
up security and control in Indonesia's territorial waters to
eliminate illegal fishing practices.

"I will strive to eliminate illegal fishing and to do this, I
will intensify cooperation with the Navy. The Navy chief has
vowed to support me in this," Murdjijo said after a ceremony for
his installation.

Apart from Murdjijo, Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin
Baharsjah yesterday also installed Syamsuddin Abbas as secretary
to the ministry's mass supervision program, Silvia Marsudi, as
the head of the agro-business agency and Mochtar Abdullah as the
head of the ministry's education and training agency.

Murdjijo said that the Navy would soon own a number of
aircraft specifically aimed at helping the supervision and
control of territorial waters.

Responding to questions about the possibility of importing
second-handed fishing vessels, Murdjijo stressed that any
decision could only be made after discussions between several
related institutions, including the Ministry of Transportation.

He acknowledged, however, that up to 50 percent of the
country's marine resources have been illegally carried away by
foreign fishing fleets, due to the lack of local large-scale
fishing vessels.

"If we step up our efforts to prevent these illegal actions,
we can expect to reduce the amount of thefts," he said.

Murdjijo said about a year was required to build a single
fishing vessel measuring 100 gross tons or more.

"We urgently need many large-sized vessels to cover our
exclusive economic zone (EEZ)," he said.

Sjarifudin yesterday reiterated that deregulations would only
be made to cut back red tape on fishing procedures, and not on
the importation of secondhand fishing vessels.

"Our domestic manufacturers are already capable of making 30
to 60 gross-ton ships. It is these sizes, and not the larger
ones, which are most needed by our fishermen," he said yesterday.

Sjarifudin pointed out that cutting back red tape would be
enough to encourage large-scale entrepreneurs to increase their
fishing activities.

"Deregulations towards the simplification of licensing
procedures are enough to increase our national fishing capacity,"
he said. (pwn)