Govt policy blamed for high illegal fishing frequency

Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - A wrong government policy is to be blamed for the minimum investment in fisheries in Indonesia and the high number of illegal fishing cases involving foreign vessels, a fisheries businessman said.

 

The number of illegal fishing cases in Indonesian waters was high because the government had since the 1980s given agency status to foreign fishing boats, Bambang Suboko, executive director of the Indonesian Fisheries Federation (Gappindo), said here Saturday.

 

Academics and experts had all along suggested to the government to make foreign fishing companies subject to a regulation requiring them to make straight investments and not to give agency status to their boats, Suboko said.

 

The granting of agency status to the foreigners, had enabled fishing boats from such countries as Taiwan to use agency documents to catch fish in Indonesia`s territorial waters as if they were Indonesian vessels.

 

As a consquence of the agency status policy, Suboko said, there was no investment in fisheries and also domestic fishermen could not compete with foreign vessels equipped with high technology.

 

Meanwhile, an official of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, Victor, said investment in fisheries through the ministry was very small.

 

In 2008, there was only one foreign company operating in the fisheries sector with an investment of Rp138 million.

 

Recently, Director of the ministry for Trespassing Handling, CN Patty said illegal fishing by foreign flagged ships in the Arafuru and Aru seas was causing a loss of Rp15 trillion per year.

 

It happened because of the insufficient surveillance by the government.

 

To minimize illegal fishing in eastern Indonesia maritime territory, the ministry had prepared five boats to focus on survellance in Merauke, Timika and Southeast Maluku waters, he said.