Fishermen Call on Government to Address Illegal Fishing

Jakarta Globe, Jun 15, 2014

Fishermen unload a catch on the shore of Banyuwangi, East Java. (AFP Photo)

Padang. An Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Union (KNTI) official on Saturday called on the government to improve efforts to secure Indonesian waters from illegal fishing by foreign boats.

The incursions cost the state trillions of Rupiah each year, the union said.

“According to KTNI data, fish theft happens in 18 places across Indonesian waters,” KNTI board of advisers head Riza Damanik said on Saturday, as quoted by state-run Antara news agency. “This practice clearly has negative implications for the country’s efforts to preserve its marine ecosystems and the sustainability of the fisheries as a food source.”

He said that that lack of monitoring left doors wide open for abuse.

“Cases of theft… cost an estimated Rp 30 trillion [$2.54 billion] worth of state losses,” he said.

He said the government should spread 1,000 local boats across broader swathes of the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEEI) to pevent foreign incursions.

He also urged the government to support Indonesian fishing infrastructure in expanding East.

“The fact is that 80 percent of fishing ports in Indonesia are still located in the western part of the country,” he said. “The fish processing industry is focused in Central Java, while actually there are plenty of resources in the eastern part of Indonesia.”

RI, Malaysia agree to protect traditional fishermen

Antara News, Mon, May 30 2011

Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to protect their traditional fishermen who have been carried away by sea currents into each other`s territorial waters.

Traditional fisherman at Teluk Nibung,
Padang, West Sumatra. (ANTARA/Iggoy el Fitra)

"In case traditional fishermen cross their countries` sea border unknowingly or by the forces of nature, they will not be captured but ordered to return," Indonesian Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Fadel Muhammad said here on Monday.

The two countries also agreed to help traditional fishing boats that had gone astray to return to their countries` waters and not to capture or punish them.

Fadel said traditional fishermen never deliberately crossed the border, adding they crossed the border because they had been carried away by sea currents and not because they wanted to fish illegally in another country`s waters.

He said fishermen operating on boats weighing five to 10 GT as traditional boats would be categorized as traditional fishermen.

He said if ships that cross the border are big ships efforts would be made to capture them.

"Boats may be captured if they are big," he said.

The minister said a lot of foreign ships have been poaching fish in the Riau Islands waters so far, mostly from China, Vietnam and Thailand.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Digging a memory of a sinking fishing center

Hasyim Widhiarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 10/06/2010 9:35 AM

Decades ago, Bagan Siapiapi, Riau province, topped the list of the world’s best fishing towns.

Shape up or ship out: A group of children swim in front
 of an old wooden pier in Bagan Siapiapi port in Rokan
 Hilir, Riau. Once the country’s largest fish producing city,
 many native fishermen have given up their trade after
fish production declined over the last several decades.

Today, local fishermen struggle to make ends meet. What used to be Indonesia’s largest fishing grounds have gone into decline after rapid coastal sedimentation and overfishing.

In the 1930s, the port produced more than 300,000 tons of fish a year, making Indonesia the world’s second-largest fish producer after Peru, according to the Rokan Hilir tourism agency.

Production started to decline in the 1950s, after World War II.

The coastal area turned into swampland. Many fishermen, including those inherited their jobs from their parents, ended up beaching their boats and switching to other jobs.

Suyanto, 36, a former fisherman who now works on a ferry, recalled the days when his father took him sailing on a wooden fishing boat on the Malacca Strait.

“We usually spent at least a week at sea before coming back with fish filling every corner of our boat,” said Suyanto, grinning.

The father of four, who was born and raised in the town, said he had taken over piloting his father’s boat when he was in his early 20s.

After struggling with small and unprofitable catches for several years, Suyanto gave up his profession in 2002 and sold his boat to pay off piling debts.

“I gave up,” he said.

After losing his boat, Suyanto found work as a crewman on a wooden ferry boat that served passengers travelling between Bagan Siapiapi and Halang Island. 

Another Bagan Siapiapi resident, Hendrik, 26, chose not to find new work and to keep pursuing fish, but this time aboard a large commercial fishing vessel that plies the farthest part of the Malacca Strait.

Growing up in a fishing family, Hendrik said he had no other choice than to beach his fishing boat after a local businessman lured him with the promise of better wages.

As part of his new job, Hendrik works around the clock for two weeks and then has one week off. He said he can pocket almost Rp 400,000 (US$45) for every two-week voyage.

“When I was still fishing with my own boat, I often didn’t have enough money to buy fuel,” he said. 

“Now I just have to keep my body fit so that the ship captain would hire me back.”

Bagan Siapiapi, which is on Riau’s eastern coast, used to be part of Bengkalis regency. In 1999, the city became the capital of the newly established Rokan Hilir regency.

Bagan Siapiapi is a six-hour drive from Riau’s capital, Pekanbaru, or a 10-hour drive from the North Sumatran capital of Medan.

The road heading to the city is relatively smooth and is flanked by acres of oil palm trees or abandoned swampland.

The only public transportation serving Bagan Siapiapi is travel vans. Most residents prefer to use motorcycles, while a small number drive cars.

Locals say the city was established in the late 19th century by Chinese fishermen who fled their hometown in Fujian province to find a place where they could start a better life.

After weeks at sea, their boats were stranded on a peninsula on Sumatra’s northern coast. The Chinese decided to settle in the area after they realized its incredible fishing potential.

As their livelihood improved, the fishing families invited their relatives and friends back home to join them. By the 20th century, the peninsula had become a crowded city with a Chinese influence dominating its architecture and culture.

The area’s rapid development led the Dutch colonial administration to make Bagan Siapiapi the country’s first modern fishing port in 1901. It later became the biggest fishing port in the Malacca Strait.

Cementing hope: A man works in front of the newly built
port building in Bagan Siapiapi. Despite its ailing fishing
industry, Rokan Hilir administration has recently built
 a new port in the hope of reviving the fishing business.

“Just imagine, the port built by the Dutch a hundred years ago is now located around three kilometers away from the current port,” Rokan Hilir Marine and Fisheries Agency deputy head Surya Alam said.

According to the agency, the city produced around 10,000 tons of fish per year over the past three years – a much smaller amount than that produced by neighboring Kubu district, which produced on average of  23,000 tons of fish a year in the same period.

Aside from sedimentation, fishermen in Bagan Siapiapi also face illegal overseas fishermen, including those from Malaysia.

“We have estimated that 60 percent of fish caught annually in Rokan Hilir waters actually went to overseas fishermen,” Surya said, adding the regency currently had only one operating patrol boats to guard its waters.

Unable to guard its coast, Bagan Siapiapi has now turned into a haven for overseas drug smugglers.

In August last year, Riau police broke up a drug syndicate based in the city’s downtown and confiscated hundreds of ecstasy pills allegedly smuggled from Malaysia.

“We have spotted more syndicates that are running similar operations in the city. However, catching them red-handed is not an easy job,” said a source at the Rokan Hilir Police station who declined to be named.

The port now serves wooden ferryboats that ply the seas between Bagan Siapiapi and neighboring islands such as Panipahan and Halang, charging passengers from Rp 35,000 and Rp 80,000 per trip.

Not far from the almost-empty port, dozens of docks belong to fishing families still stand — although many of them have not harbored boats for years.

Several years ago, the port offered a ferry service between the city and Port Klang in Malaysia. However, the service ended after it attracted few passengers.

“Many people chose to go to Malaysia from the seaport in Dumai, which has much better facilities,” said Indra Ali, a Bagan Siapiapi port official.

— Photos by Hasym Widhiarto

Malaysian police again arrest five Indonesian fishermen

Antara News, Monday, September 6, 2010 02:14 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Malaysian police once again arrested five Indonesian fishermen believed to be in Indonesian waters on Friday and held them in a police post in Kampung Jawi, Malaysia, a fishery advocacy coalition said.

"We got the information from our networks, families of those arrested and other fishermen who escaped the arrest," Secretary General of the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA), Riza Damanik, said here on Sunday.

He said that the five fishermen who were arrested came from Sei Bilah and Sei Bilah Timur villages, Sei Lepan sub district, Langket district, North Sumatra.

They are Naser (34), Junaidi (30), Iswadi (32), Jolauni (31) and Ali Akbar (22).

Damanik said he believed the five were arrested within the Indonesian water territory based on explanations made by fishermen who escaped the Malaysian police arrest.

In the meantime, the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia has not yet notified the families of the arrest.

"I hope the embassy would soon take actions to provide legal assistance for the Indonesian fishermen. I don`t know why the Indonesian embassy is always late. After all, Malaysia should have as soon as possible notified the embassy each time it had arrested Indonesians," Damanik said.

With regard to the six traditional fishermen from Sei Bilah, Langkat district, North Sumatra, who were previously arrested by Malaysian police on July 9, 2010, he said that the six fishermen were now held at Malaysia`s Sena Prison.

He said that five of the six fishermen were jailed up to October 29, 2010. They are Ismail (27), Amat (24), Hamid (50), Syahrial(42) and Mahmud (42). The other one, Sementara Zulham (40), will be jailed until December 9, 2010.

Damanik said that they were jailed because they lacked legal assistance, even though they were convinced they were fishing within Indonesia`s territorial waters.

Freighters take sail in Friesland

RNW, 24 July 2010 - 7:49pm

skûtsjes in competition (Photo: LC)

The annual skûtsje competition has started on the lakes of Friesland, a province in the northern Netherlands.

A skûtsje is a flat-bottomed sailing boat built for transporting freight in the shallow inland waters of the Netherlands. In use throughout the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, they were rendered obsolete by the arrival of road transport. Despite this, such sailing competitions have never gone out of fashion and, in the last few years, have become increasingly popular among the public.

Weather permitting, the Friesland competition will last 14 days. During this time, 14 skûtsjes will take part in 11 stages. More than 150,000 spectators are expected to watch from the lakes’ shores.

Related Articles:

Skutsjesilen.nl - (Official website)

Amsterdam ring of canals on UNESCO World Heritage List

Amsterdam residents concerned about World Heritage status

Frisia

Frisian settlement area (Frisian Coast)

Stop issuing fishing permits or face crisis, govt told

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 07/05/2010 9:38 AM

Activists renewed calls Saturday for the government to stop issuing fishing permits to large vessels, because fish numbers in many Indonesian bodies of water have reached critical levels due to overfishing.

The Peoples Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara) warned the government that failure to restrict fishing in the country’s waters would result in a major fish shortage by 2015.

The coalition proposed a five-year moratorium on permits for big fishing vessels — foreign-or domestic-owned — of 30 deadweight tons or more.

“Our finding shows overfishing has occurred in most of the country’s waters,” Kiara’s secretary-general Riza Damanik told The Jakarta Post.

He said that several countries, including China, Japan and European states had implemented moratoriums in their own waters to allow time for fish to replenish.

Indonesia is one of the 10 biggest fish producing countries in the world.

Quoting statistics from the National Commission on Fish Resource Assessment, Riza said fish numbers in six Indonesian bodies of waters had become critical since 2006.

The six areas are the Malacca straits, the South China Sea, the Java Sea, the Flores Sea, the Makassar Strait, the Pacific Ocean and the Sulawesi Sea.

“The areas have been over-exploited but the government has not moved to protect the sea resources,” he said.

Many trawlers still operate in bodies of water where trawling is illegal, including off the coast of northern East Kalimantan. The government banned trawling in Indonesian waters in 1980.

“The Presidential Decree [which bans trawling] is still in place but trawling continues in East Kalimantan. We have found trawlers operating in waters off Tarakan where traditional fishermen have been complaining about decreasing catches,” he said.

“Where trawlers operate, fish stocks dwindle, coral reefs are damaged and social divides among fishers are triggered,” he said.

About 15 million people work as traditional fishermen in the country.

The government has repeatedly acknowledged that illegal fishing is rampant in Indonesian waters, often involving foreign vessels.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad has accused foreign vessels of illegal fishing in Indonesian waters. Many of those had no fishing permits or instead carried fake documents.

Data from the ministry showed the country impounded 186 foreign vessels for illegal fishing in Indonesia in 2008, compared to 184 the previous year.

The coalition has said Indonesia’s fisheries potential is slashed by 30 to 50 percent every year due to illegal fishing.

Fishermen Attack Power Plant Construction in West Java

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 28 April, 2010 | 20:41 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Residents around a coal power plant in Cirebon, West Java attacked and damaged facilities of the plant in protest over sediments formed at the delta of Warudur River due to the construction of the plant.

Residents and fishermen from nearby villages set fire one motorcycle and damaged six others and smashed windows of facilities around the construction site of Kanci Power plant after contractor of the project PT Cirebon Elektrik refused to meet the protesters.

Residents said sediments in the river bed especially at the delta section have disrupt their fishing and demanded the company to restore the river bed.

The attack finally started at three pm local time as no delegate from the facility sent to talk to protesters, which also injured pChief of the Cirebon Resort Police Adjutant Senior Commissioner Sufyan Syarif.

Police deployed two companies of crowd control unit and the Mobile Brigade to control situation and Adj. Sen. Comm. Sufyan Syarif no protesters were held. Sufyan said he had contacted regent of Cirebon Dedi Supardi to settle the problem and said a meeting will be held tonight at the offcial residence of the regent between regional authorities and fishermen.

Hundreds of fishboats in Warudur river ran aground the shallow bed at the delta especially during low water debit, which terribly affects fishing.

IVANSYAH

Pollution deprives them, eviction plan makes it worse

Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/15/2010 11:04 AM

Hundreds of fishermen in Marunda, Cilincing, North Jakarta, are facing doubtful job prospects.

They can no longer rely on their skills as heavy pollution at Jakarta Bay has been said to make it hard to catch fish for a living.

Along with possibly losing a reliable source of income, they are facing the threat of losing their homes since the city administration has said it plans to clear the coastal area where the squatters have been living for years to make way for other industries.

“Several months ago, we could not fish due to heavy pollution of the water,” fisherman Ngkim told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The 50-year-old Ngkim said he did not know where the pollution came from. He only knew that the pollution prevented him from catching fish.

Jakarta Bay, where 13 rivers dissect, has long been known as a dump site for the city as people throw out household trash into rivers.

Many industrial plants have also been reportedly dumping their unprocessed and toxic waste into rivers.

Ismail, another squatter, said many of his neighbors gave up their fisherman jobs and turned to informal jobs.

“Heavy pollution has significantly reduced our income. Many of us are now plant workers or have opened small cigarette stalls,” said the 49-year-old former fisherman, who worked for one year at a shipping company nearby and is now an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver.

Pollution is not the only behemoth that impacts one fishermen as the administration plans to transform the area into a logistics hub under the US$2 billion Special Economic Zone project.

Deputy Governor Prijanto said earlier his administration would employ local residents as workers in the project.

Ngkim said he had no idea on how he would earn money for his family if he was evicted from the area because the only skill he possessed was fishing.

“Even though the administration said it would employ locals, what can I do? I am illiterate and I am getting older,” said the father of six.

“I don’t think there will be positions for [unskilled] people like me.”

Fishy deal

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 04/04/2010 3:50 PM

Fishy deal: Fishermen unload their catches, cakalang [tuna] fish, in Larantuka, East Flores of East Nusa Tenggara, on Sunday. East Flores area produces around 12 million tons of fishes per year. Antara/Ismar Patrizki

Canal Evictions in North Jakarta Show Fishing Community Crisis

The Jakarta Globe, Fidelis E Satriastanti

To ask a fisherman to stay away from the sea is to ask the unthinkable. At least that is what a 26-year-old wife of a fisherman thinks.

“Can you force those who have been working on dry land all of their lives to earn a living by going out to sea every day? Have you ever heard of a fisherman living in a building, far from the sea?” said Risma, who knows of the hardships of being a fisherman’s wife.

Passengers on a small ferry negotiating their way between two large vessels. Each passenger pays Rp 1,000 (11 cents) to cross from Muara Baru fishing village to Sunda Kelapa, both in North Jakarta. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Her family, one of 150 in the Marunda Kepu village of Cilincing in North Jakarta, is now, more than ever, struggling to make ends meet because they have been forced from land that will be used to develop the long-awaited East Flood Canal.

The fishing communities understand the importance of the canal — scheduled to be up and running by Dec. 31 — in reducing the impact of flooding in the capital, but have stressed that the local administration should have considered the negative effect on their lives before evicting them.

Tiarom, 33, emphasized that he is not against development.

“I just hope the government gives some thought to us fishermen. Give us access to fish. Don’t just scare us off,” he said.

Tiarom, whose family has been fishing for generations, said the administration had offered the community low-cost apartments in the area.

“We’d be better off living in our boats rather than living in a building. Fishermen need to spread their nets. We need space for that. There is no way that fishermen can survive living in buildings like that,” he said, adding that 70 percent of people living in Marunda fished in nearby ponds and the sea.

Slamet Daryoni, chief of urban environmental education at the Indonesian Green Institute, said the local administration should have been more communicative and provided fishermen with better alternatives.

“The problem is that these fishermen were never involved in discussions [about the project]. You can’t just change their lifestyles and hope they can adapt within a few months,” Slamet said. “They have been fishermen all their lives. This is what they know and do.”

“It is very obvious the government is trying to isolate them, as if they don’t exist.”

He said the affected villages were located in the middle of the canal project.

“It’s true that most of these people don’t own the land and they have no legal certificates to prove ownership. But I don’t believe isolating them is the answer,” Slamet said.

“They just want to make a living, for their kids to go to school, and if the government could just sit down and talk to them, they’d be happy to listen.”

In order to survive, Tiarom said that if they could not go to sea, they would end up becoming cilong , or ragpickers, searching through garbage dumps to make a living. Only a few would look for odd jobs on construction sites.

“If we go to sea, we can earn at least Rp 40,000 ($4.25) to Rp 60,000 a day if the catch is good. On a bad day we only make about Rp 10,000,” he said. “The past three years have been hard because of the unpredictable weather, and pollution from the surrounding industries has caused fish numbers to shrink.”

Abdul Hadi, a professor at Paramadina University, said only a few traditional fishing communities were staying faithful to their trades.

More than 80 people in Jakarta were killed and thousands more left homeless due to flooding in 2007. Floods also prompted the closure of the city’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport in 2008. Monsoon rains cause flooding almost every year in Jakarta, where the only flood-control canal is too small to handle the runoff.

“We are facing a crisis in this country in regard to the existence of fishing communities. This should be seen as a cultural conflict,” Abdul said. “We can’t force these people to trade off their cultures and livelihoods for something completely alien to them.”

Lok Baintan, the Last Floating Market

Kompas, BANJARMASIN POST/ FIKRIA HIDAYAT, TUESDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2009 | 7:00 PM

The floating market of Lok Baintan village, South Borneo. The last of its kind.

(Complete photos at: KOMPAS IMAGES)

KOMPAS PHOTO STORY - The middle-aged lady rowed her boat, parting the morning mist along the river. Fresh oranges and local vegetables tigarun were piled on her boat. A few other ladies followed, and their jukungs - the local name for their little boats - marched, each carrying the harvest goods to be sold at the floating market of Lok Baintan village, in Sungai Tabuk subdistrict, Banjar Regency, South Borneo (Kalimantan).

November coincides with the oranges harvest season. The oranges were so abundant that the villagers sold them in heaps. They also sold traditional cakes, food, and basic daily needs such as rice, coconut oil, and even clothes. The morning market was crowded.

To reach this floating market, it took an hour's journey through the river from Banjarmasin city, South Borneo. The land route can be taken by motor-bike, with the same length of time, but the river-way was more scenic.

The market started around 8 AM on a part of the Martapura River. The market came to life as the merchants came and rowed their jukungs, one by one converging on one spot. The unique part was that the market moved in line with the river's current, and the hustle bustle of it peaked around 9 AM.

Transactions were made on the river. It was a little hard to tell apart buyers and sellers, because the merchants seemed to be buyers also at some point.

The best time to see the radiance of this market is during the orange or rambutan (nephelium fruit) season around September to December. Unfortunately the fruit seasons are often uncertain because the rain and dry seasons are now also unpredictable.

But this doesn't mean we can't visit the market beyond those times. But please note that during the rice harvesting season the market tends to be quieter, because most of the people and merchants spend more time on the paddy fields.

The uncertain seasons, the quality and quantity of harvests, all these factors affect the market. Aside from that the market also suffers from the culture shifting that looks toward the western culture.

The floating market in this village in the last one in South Borneo. Markets like this used to be numerous, but now they're extinct. Even the city of Banjarmasin used to have the floating market of Kuin, but that has been replaced by the regular land market. A lot of tourists visiting Kuin must bear their disappointment for not witnessing that exotic water-surface market.

The disappearance of traditional markets in the "thousand river" region is triggered by the flourishing land culture, which is supported by the regional developments that are always land-oriented. The river-ways and canals are perishing, replaced by the ease of land transport. The people that used to have jukungs, are now proud to own motor-bikes or cars.

Luckily the market in Lok Baintan village is coping. That village is the heir of the greatest river-culture legacy in South Borneo. The river still supports the local economy. (FIA/C17-09)

Editor: jimbon

Indonesian Minister Hopes to Hook Loans For Fishermen

The Jakarta Globe, Arti Ekawati & Ardian Wibosono

A fisherman repairing a net at Cilincing, North Jakarta. Fishermen make just Rp 900,000 a month on average and find it hard to get bank loans. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad wants to see the fisheries sector receive at least 20 percent of the funds earmarked by the government as part of a soft-loans scheme to promote the development of micro- and small businesses.

“Of a total of Rp 20 trillion [$2.1 billion] allocated by the government to finance the small-business loan scheme, I hope to secure some 20 to 25 percent of the money for the fisheries sector,” Fadel said during a discussion about the ministry’s first 100-day program with fishermen at Muara Angke fishing port in North Jakarta on Friday.

He said the money could be used to develop businesses in the fisheries sector.

During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Fadel acknowledged that the sector had been badly neglected compared with other areas of the economy, such as agriculture and mining, resulting in lower incomes for fishermen and a lack of access to bank loans and services. On average, fishermen make only about Rp 900,000 a month, he said.

Fadel’s comments were welcomed by Syahruna Fauzi, the chairman of the Jakarta branch of the Progressive Fishermen and Farmers Association (KTNA).

“Our conservative banking system has not catered to fishermen’s needs. For example, the banks won’t accept boats as collateral for loans. We don’t know why this should be the case,” he said.

Fishermen face additional difficulties, Syahruna said, including an inhospitable climate. He noted that fishermen have to tie up their boats during the wet season, normally between October and February, due to high seas and strong winds, leaving them without a source of income for four months every year.

Sofyan Basir, president director of state-owned PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia, said banks were committed to supporting small businesses in the fisheries sector, but admitted “the loans currently disbursed to the sector are very low.”

However, he said banks recently had relaxed lending criteria for fishermen.

“If the money is lent through the government’s soft loans scheme, it shouldn’t be a problem. Banks can even use boats bought by under the soft loans scheme as collateral,” he said.

The government should improve supporting infrastructure to help fishermen store and distribute their catches before banks would be willing to risk larger investment in the sector, Sofyan said. “Otherwise, I’m afraid many of the loans will turn bad.”

Regarding infrastructure, Syahruna said the country’s port facilities were grossly inadequate. Nearly half of the 20 fishing ports managed by the central government lacked the necessary infrastructure, such as cold storage facilities and good transportation links, according to figures from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry. The vast majority of the 33 fishing ports managed by local governments are even worse.

“Poor road access to the ports and a lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities are the main problems,” said Yan Winata Sasmita, chairman of the Indonesian Fishermen’s Association (HNSI) .

Inadequate roads make it difficult to transport fresh fish to the markets, he said.

Responding to the fishermen’s concerns, Fadel promised to do his best to improve port infrastructure, in collaboration with the Public Works Ministry, although he gave no specific commitments.

Indonesia's Fishermen Promised a Helping Hand

The Jakarta Globe, Arti Ekawati

A man installs oars on his fishing boat in Jakarta. (File Photo: Tatan Syuflana)

Raising fishermen’s income, providing them with soft bank loans and improving infrastructure to support the industry are the three top priorities of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries over the next five years, the newly appointed minister said.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad said the declining incomes of small-scale fishermen is a major concern. He noted that fishermen along the north coast of Java earn an average of only Rp 800,000 ($82.40) a month. This is half of what the average small-scale fisherman earns in Gorontalo Province in Sulawesi, which enjoys the highest income for fishing in the country.

The poor earnings were closely linked to over-fishing in certain parts of the country, with the North Java Sea, the Malaka Strait and the East Kalimantan Sea being the most overfished, Fadel said. The ministry was considering giving fishermen in these areas permits to fish in other, less diminished zones, he said.

To improve infrastructure, more roads servicing fishing ports and more fish auction centers could be built, Fadel said.

He added that he had already talked to the minister of public works and the minister of energy and mineral resources about this. State-owned banks could also provide low-interest loans to help fishermen develop other businesses to supplement their incomes, he said.

Arifin Djunaedi, a fisheries analyst and former chairman of House of Representatives Commission IV, which oversees the fisheries, forestry and agricultural sectors, said the ministry needed to improve the sector by actually implementing these programs instead of just making promises.

Earlier this year, the House expressed disappointment in the ministry’s performance. Former legislator Rusman Ali questioned the ministry’s decision to spend only 76.6 percent of the money it was allocated in the 2008 budget. Others criticized it for falling short of its target for non-tax revenue collection, bringing in just under half of its goal of Rp 215.7 billion.

Boediono`s Maluku visit Expected to promote Sail Banda 2010

Antara, Saturday, September 26, 2009 15:03 WIB

Banda Neira (ANTARA News) - Vice President-elect Boediono`s visit to Maluku is of strategic significance for the promotion of Sail Banda 2010, Maluku Culture and Tourism Office head Florance Sahusilawane said here on Saturday.

"Boediono`s visit to the spice islands in Maluku is a sign that the gong for the promotion of Sail Banda 2010 has been sounded, because it is the vice president-elect who will spearheaded the campaign to promote the international sail event," Sahusilawane said.

She said Boediono`s presence in Banda Neira from Saturday to Monday (Sept 26-28) was an indication security conditions in Maluku were conducive for the international event which will follow the Sail Bunaken 2009 which took place in Agust this year in Manado, North Sulawesi.

"The preparedness of the people of Banda to receive Boediono indicates that they are also ready to host Sail Banda 2010," Sahusilawane said, adding that the event was to be organized as an international marine expedition.

She said the idea to hold the international event was being designed by adopting the past period of "hongitochten", punitive expeditions conducted by the Dutch to suppress uprisings in Seram, particularly in the clove-rich peninsula of Hoamoal and nearby islands with traditional boats.

Therefore, Sahusilawane called on villages across Maluku which have typical traditional boats to take part in and liven up Sail Banda 2010.

She said the promotion of Sail Banda 2010 would not be very difficult because the Banda islands were already known worldwide as the "spice islands", while UNESCO had named the islands one of the world`s heritages.

Maluku Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu said recently that some 150 sail boats from a number of countries had been registered to take part in Sail Banda 2010.

"I met Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik in Jakarta recently and he said about 150 sail boats have signed up for the international maritime event in Maluku next year," the governor said.