FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL FISHING ACTIVITIES INTENSIFIED by Fardah

 Jakarta, Nov 22, 2016 (Antara) - Indonesia has been blessed with abundant maritime natural resources that could make other countries envious.

        This prompts several other nations to carry out illegal fishing activities in Indonesian waters.

        The government has claimed that the illegal fishing activities in the country's waters had caused a loss of hundreds of trillions of rupiahs a year to the state.

        The Joko Widodo (Jokowi) administration has declared a war against illegal fishing activities since the inauguration of the president in October 2014.

        As of now, hundreds of foreign fishing boats caught illegally operating in Indonesian waters  have been exploded and sunk in the sea over the past two years of the present government.

        The war against illegal fishing activities has been spearheaded by Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti with the support of other parties, particularly the Indonesian Navy.

        The government has even set up an Illegal Fishing Eradication Task Force (Task Force 115) to combat poaching in Indonesian waters.

         The Task Force 115 has made a synergy with other agencies and institutions in its operation.

        The inter-ministry task force acts as the supervisor and executor for the legal process of tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing cases.

         Pudjiastuti has lauded the Task Force 115 for its successful performance in seeking to stamp out illegal fishing.

       The task force has succeeded in increasing the contribution of the fisheries sector to the country's economic development, the minister said. 
    "What the task force has done was extraordinary in result. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the fisheries sector grew by nearly 40 percent," Pudjiastuti said in Jakarta on November 21.

       Furthermore, the task force had also contributed to improving the welfare of the fishermen and their families.

         "The war against illegal fishing is an important program of Widodo. No one is allowed to intervene in the execution of the program," she said.

         Earlier Susi, together with the members of Task Force 115, held an impromptu inspection visit to the port of Benoa, Bali, and found illegal activities in the fisheries sector.

          "I thank the investigators of the Task Force 115 for the hard work in uncovering the crimes in Benoa," Susi said in a news conference here.

         She said among the alleged crimes committed in Benoa were modification of former foreign fishing boats to look like local boats and the use of local fishing boat documents for foreign fishing boats to operate freely without paying fees to the state.

         She said foreign fishing boats, earlier detained for illegal fishing, were allowed to flee without proper registration.

         "These practices have directly caused a loss in taxes to the state," she added.

         Nine fishing boats were found by the Task Force 115 involved in the alleged crime in the fisheries sector in Benoa.

         Earlier, President Joko `Jokowi¿ Widodo said that the Task Force 115 must continue their works in eradicating illegal fishing.

        Indonesia must be consistent in its war against illegal fishing, he said.

        In the meantime, patrol boats of the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry have nabbed fishing boats from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines for poaching in Indonesian waters.

        Since November 8, 23 foreign boats had been detained, Sjarief Widjaja, acting director general for fisheries and maritime natural resources supervision of the ministry, said on Nov 21.

         On November 16, Orca 003 patrol boat of the ministry nabbed four foreign fishing boats in the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone in Sulawesi Sea.

        The four boats, FB/CA. JULEI JANE, FB/CA. ELYZA, FB/CA. IAN JANE, and FB/CA. ALVINTROY, using tuna hand line, had 37 Filipino crew members.

         In the same sea and on the same day, Hiu 007 patrol boat detained FB/CA. JESSA and FB/CA. ROMEL.

        The six foreign boats were taken to Bitung, North Sulawesi.

         Also, on November 16, Orca 02 patrol boat arrested three foreign fishing boats having 26 Vietnamese crew members.

        The three fishing boats were BV 4667 TS, BV 0589 TS and BV 99688 TS. 
  On November 19, Hiu 009 patrol boats detained a Malaysian-flagged fishing boat SLFA 4654 in Malacca Straits. The boat was herded to Batam.

         On November 11 and 12, five foreign boats were nabbed in Natuna waters, Riau Island.

         The boats were BV 0595 TS (63 "gross tonnage"/GT), BV 5201 TS (63 GT), BV 92255 TS (42 GT) and BV 0027 TS (42 GT 42) having Vietnamese crew members, as well as Malaysia-flagged PAF 4767 (45 GT) with 14 Vietnamese crew members on board.

         On November 8, eight Vietnam-flagged fishing boats were detained in Natuna waters, Riau Islands Province, with a total of 53 crew members.

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(T.F001/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 22-11-2016