Legislator urges modern vessel procurement to target fish theft prevention

Member of Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives Rokhmin Dahuri has urged that the modern fishing vessel procurement programme be directed towards strengthening efforts to eradicate illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Indonesian waters. During a working meeting with the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in Jakarta on Thursday, he said these modern vessels should be stationed in areas prone to fish theft by foreign vessels, such as Natuna, the Arafura Sea, border areas with the Philippines, and Pacific waters. “Do not keep pouring modern fishing vessels into areas that are already overfished. They must be utilised to exploit fishery resources in sea areas that have been stolen by foreign vessels,” he said, as quoted from a parliamentary statement. He reminded that the practice of illegal fishing remains a major piece of unfinished business that the government needs to resolve immediately. He assessed that various programmes currently being run by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, such as the Kampung Nelayan Merah Putih, revitalisation of ponds, and development of integrated shrimp farms, need to be balanced with more serious efforts to tackle fish theft. “The structural problem in the marine and fisheries sector that has barely been touched is illegal fishing. It turns out it is still rampant to this day,” he stated. The first strategy is to strengthen the presence of national fishers in areas that have been targeted by foreign vessels through the addition of modern fishing fleets, including the procurement of modern vessels supported by a soft loan scheme from the British Government. He explained that the number of modern Indonesian fishing vessels is still limited. Out of approximately 800,000 fishing vessels owned by Indonesia, only around 3,600 units are above 30 gross tonnage. This condition, according to him, is one of the causes of the still high activity of foreign vessels in several Indonesian waters. The second strategy is to strengthen law enforcement by increasing maritime surveillance capacity. According to Rokhmin, the current allocation for surveillance operations is still far from adequate to cover the vast expanse of Indonesian waters. He believes maritime surveillance must go hand in hand with strengthening the economic activities of coastal communities through increasing the number of modern vessels, training fishers, and building fishery product processing industries in border areas.