TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Marine and Fishery Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said that Indonesia is the third largest fish exporter in Southeast Asia.

“Despite the fact that we have the world’s second longest coastline. It’s a contradiction and an irony, we should not be content,” she said yesterday in Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta.

Therefore, Susi said in the anniversary of Indonesian Fishermen Association (HNSI) on Depok beach that she has taken harsh measures to combat illegal fishing.

Susi said that it was not easy to eliminate illegal fishing because she must break the decade-long chain to at least improve Indonesia’s fishery production.

Large-scale fish theft, according to Susi, has also resulted in declining number of fishermen household. A survey in 2003 reported that Indonesia had 1.6 million households, which declined to only 800,000 in 2013.

“It’s because fishermen can no longer live due to the lack of fish that had become scarcer. I can say this because I experienced it myself,” Susi said.

As the number of fishermen household declined, she went on, hundreds of fishery companies or exporters are winding up.

Therefore, aside from tackling illegal fishing she also bans the sales of lobster seeds to loan sharks for export purpose.

Susi expects fishermen who have joined the HNSI to consolidate considering that the government has rolled out fishery programs for three years in line with President Joko Widodo’s vision and missions.

She said that the vision and missions include the plan to turn Indonesia into the world’s maritime axis and having the view that ocean is the future.

ANTARA