Vague decree gives poachers leeway to plunder sea

The Jakarta Post , Tual, Maluku | Thu, 03/06/2008 1:23 AM

While Indonesia is still struggling to curb rampant illegal logging, the country also faces poaching on the open seas where wars between competing interests are often difficult to detect.

As crime scenes of illegal fishing are extremely remote and environmental destruction hard to measure, no kingpins of poaching syndicates have ever ended up in either jail or court.

On Tuesday, though, Indonesia and 10 other countries issued plans in Bali to jointly combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

FISHY BUSINESS: Indonesian-registered fishing trampers from Thailand are docked at a port belonging to fishing firm PT Maritim Timur Jaya. They were detained last December for alleged poaching (JP/Rendi A. Witular)

The Jakarta Post's Rendi Akhmad Witular investigates the story behind illegal fishing, traveling to backwater Tual Island in Maluku province, a haven for the fishing industry. Here are the reports.

The police combat-type patrol boat 001 Ambon stands by to prevent 14 fishing vessels from slipping out of a port on Tual Island after the police detained the vessels for alleged poaching.

With the patrol boat's only weapon being an old shotgun, the 12 crew members have to ensure also that none of the 306 crew members of the detained vessels escape on smaller boats.

The 001 Ambon is the only vessel available for patrolling the open sea; and it is tasked with supervising almost the entire eastern part of Indonesia.

The 001 Ambon adds to the 20 vessels of the same type operated by the ministry of fisheries and maritime affairs to patrol the nation's 93,000 square kilometers of water, about the size of Hungary, and protect them from poaching.

Despite the lack of supervision facilities in place, the ministry grants fishing licenses that often end up in the hands of dishonest fishing companies.

A document obtained by The Jakarta Post from the ministry highlights the handling of licenses granted to local fishing companies working with foreign ones.

Ministry investigators have determined the document is valid in terms of internal administrative procedures. It indicates that licenses are being granted improperly, whether negligently or on purpose.

The document contains authorization from the ministry's director general of fishing and licenses, Ali Supardan, for fishing operations involving both local fishing firm PT Mina Jaya Bahari and a Thai fishing tramper, the Ocean Empire.

The 1,884-gross-ton tramper -- a vessel that receives and stores fish from other vessels -- has a 3,465-cubic-meter storage capacity.

The license granted by Ali, valid from Aug. 31, 2007, to Aug. 30, 2008, gives the tramper the right to dock in Tual, Merauke and Timika.

However, on Nov. 26, the tramper and several other vessels were detained by the police off Tual Island in Maluku for alleged poaching.

According to the National Police's deputy chief for special crimes, Sr. Comr. Sadar Sebayang, the tramper was receiving catches for export directly from fishing vessels. This violates regulations that require fishing vessels to transport catches to land-based processing plants first.

The regulations are aimed at stimulating employment and tax revenue in the fishing sector.

Because catching vessels cannot travel far on the open sea, police say, trampers are used in poaching operations to pool and transport illegally collected fish out of Indonesia to neighboring countries, especially Thailand.

According to the document, the decision by Ali to allow the tramper access to Indonesian waters was based merely on a private agreement involving a group of companies desiring the use of a tramper to transport processed catches for export.

Based on regulations, local and foreign joint-venture companies are required to have a processing plant before they are allowed to export fish.

However, pursuant to a 2006 decree signed by fisheries minister Freddy Numberi, an exception applies to fishing firms whose processing plants are not yet operational.

For wholly owned local firms the on-shore processing requirement is waived for a one-year period and such firms are allowed to export their catches directly.

These loopholes appear to relieve the authorizing agency -- in this case the director general of fishing and licenses -- from the duty to verify the compliance of fishing firms.

"It remains unclear whether the ministry is sloppy in granting licenses to troubled firms, or if there is a deliberate attempt on the part of some officials here to make way for poaching," said a senior ministry official who asked for anonymity, fearing dismissal for disclosing the information.

"Firms whose vessels are detained during a crackdown typically don't have processing units. They lease trampers and load their catches there for direct export. This is illegal," he said.

Ali denied he bent the rules to provide opportunities to dishonest firms to fish illegally.

"Overseas trampers are allowed to operate here ... local firms need them to transport their processed fish for export. But trampers must dock in the harbor to upload the fish."

He said he dealt with numerous applications and did not remember Ocean Empire's. "I only give licenses to trampers that comply with existing procedures."

Col. (ret) Firman, an executive for Mina Jaya, also denied police accusations his firm had violated any regulations. He said the tramper uploaded catches in the harbor, supervised closely by customs officials and officials from the fishery ministry.

According to the senior ministry official, while the 2006 decree had the appearance of protecting Indonesia from foreign fishing firms, in reality, by allowing foreigners to effectively hide behind Indonesian operations, it made it easier for them to poach here.

"The decree was made hastily. The directorate general of supervision had not yet given its approval when the decree was unexpectedly signed by Minister Freddy, (based) merely on the input of the directorate general of fishing and licenses," said the official.

The supervision directorate, he said, had demanded to see the draft of the decree in order to detect loopholes, as well as to prepare a clear-cut supervision system to detect and prevent irregularities in the granting of licenses.

Hanafi Rustandi, chairman of the Indonesian Seafarers Union, said while the minister claimed that foreign-sponsored local firms could help empower the country's fishing fleet, "our fishermen remain in backwaters while foreigners rake in proceeds from the sea".

From 1996 to 1998, Freddy was the commander of the naval base overseeing Papua and Maluku, including the resource-rich Sea of Arafura and fishing areas near Tual Island.

The ministry is now in the process of revising the 2006 decree, but loopholes remain in the draft revision, especially related to the direct export of certain fish -- such as tuna -- in connection with the land-based processing exception.

The draft effectively allows fishing vessels to net tuna at will and directly transfer them to trampers for export. This will make supervision difficult, especially when the loading takes place at sea.

The one-year waiver that exempts 100 percent locally owned fishing firms from having processing plants is another loophole that remains open in the current draft.

Ali acknowledged that the problematic language remained, but said immediate revision wasn't needed.

"We have left clauses in place for the next revision of the decree .... If you ask me whether we need a breakthrough in the new decree (to prevent poaching), I guess that won't be necessary right now."