Illegal fishing costs RI Rp 20t

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government said on Monday it had managed to keep state losses from illegal fishing at Rp 20 trillion (US1.9 million), with monitoring saving Rp 501 billion in further losses.

The government's increasing monitoring and law enforcement measures contributed to the success, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said. Most illegal fishing is blamed on foreign boat crews.

Ardius Zainuddin, the ministry's director general of monitoring and resources control, said the Rp 501 billion saved was more than last year's Rp 290.5 billion.

"It is due to our move to set up five more monitoring stations, which has in turn improved fishing companies' observance of the law," he told a news conference in Jakarta.

The additional five brings the number of monitoring stations in Indonesian waters to 14, Ardius added.

However, ministry data show that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing involving domestic and foreign parties causes about Rp 20 trillion in annual state losses.

Ardius blamed the refusal of fishing companies to install vessel monitoring system (VMS) transmitters on their boats for the preventing losses to the state.

He said his office had given free transmitters to 1,500 of the 6,000 locally registered fishing boats operating in Indonesia, but only half of them had installed them on their boats.

"At present, only 49 percent of local fishing ships have installed such transmitters," he added.

VMS is a technology-based system that allows monitors to check the location of a vessel at regular intervals and learn whether the vessel is operating in an area where fishing is prohibited.

"If all the devices were installed in all fishing boats operating here, we would be able to prevent at least 50 percent of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities," Ardius said.

The fisheries ministry has vowed to deal sternly with any fishing company that refuses to install VMS transmitters on their boats.

"We will ask the police to arrest and prosecute them," he said, adding that the government planed to set up a maritime court late next year.