RI losses $2b a year in fishing resources

RI losses $2b a year in fishing resources

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's fishing resources need greater
protection because potential export revenue of between US$1
billion and $2 billion is lost each year through illegal foreign
fishing, a maritime expert said yesterday.

Ambassador-at-large on sea/maritime law Hasjim Djalal said the
nation's protection of its vast territorial waters should be
improved.

Hasjim suggested greater funding.

Noting that Indonesia annually earned $2 billion from fishing
exports, he said the country could set aside $50 million of that
revenue to improve its maritime protection capability.

He listed law enforcement, and greater coordination between
law enforcement agencies and local fishing communities as other
measures the government needed to look at.

Local fishermen should report any suspicious seeming foreign
fishing boats to the authorities, he said.

Hasjim was speaking during a break of a seminar discussion on
the empowerment of the fishing community, which was organized by
the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

He suggested foreign fishing boats operating in Indonesian
waters could be forced to install transponders. He said this was
a common practice in other countries.

Monitoring foreign fishing boats' operations could be
centralized, he said.

There are 7,000 foreign fishing boats of 60 gross tons to 300
gross tons operating in Indonesian waters and the Exclusive
Economic Zone, including some chartered by Indonesian companies.

The government has said it will ban foreign fishing boats from
operating in Indonesian waters beginning in 2000.

In the seminar, Hasjim said he was concerned that people had
misconstrued the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea's Article 62 on the utilization of living resources.

The article says that a coastal state which does not have the
capacity to harvest its entire allowable catch, could give other
states access to the surplus of the allowable catch in the
exclusive economic zone.

Hasjim said the article did not automatically guarantee other
states access to Indonesia's exclusive economic zone.

They have to comply with terms and conditions established by
Indonesia, he said.

Indonesia can regulate the licensing of fishing boats,
determine which species may be caught, regulate fishing seasons
and areas, and even the landing of all or any part of the catch
by vessels in the ports of the coastal state, he said. (10)