TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - This is the irony of Indonesia: it is blessed with 3 million square kilometers of coastline, its sea waters filled with abundant resources, yet it imports substantial quantities of fish. Not just 'luxury fish' not found in Indonesian waters, but common anchovies and other such fish are supplied from overseas. To make matters worse, some of these fish come from Indonesia's own seas, stolen by foreign fishing vessels and resold back to us.
This crooked business has continued for years, and the government seems powerless to stop it. These maritime thieves come from Thailand, Vietnam and even China, using various methods. One practice is to use Indonesian-flagged ships and to fraudulently use permits. Owners of these thieving ships have even successfully lobbied to get the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry to pass regulations in their favor.
The equipment used by these fishing pirates is sophisticated: fast boats that are hard to catch, sonar to detect fish, trawl nets and even explosives. The impact is unimaginable. Reefs and other sea life are damaged and scattered. Millions of tons of fish that are caught are sold directly to large ships waiting in international waters. According to the Fisheries Department, losses to the state have reached as much as Rp101 trillion.
With such huge losses, it it truly strange that the government has done nothing. It is too much to hope that patrol ships can prevent these foreign ships from operating. There are only 27 to keep a watch on thousands of vessels. In a year, more than 3,000 Thai boats operate in Indonesian waters. There are also boats from Vietnam, China, Malaysia and other nations.
Some of these ships are free to fish because they hold fraudulent documents. One example is the vessel Meriyana, which was detained near Bitung, North Sulawesi. Foreign owned, it was carrying two false documents. One was to evade examination in Indonesia, while another was for overseas. The ship had another name, Yungbin 05.
In Bitung, Tual, and in other fishing ports, ships with false documents are commonplace. The majority of these ships' crewmen are foreigners. Not surprisingly, owners of food stalls in Bitung are able to speak passable Thai when hawking their coffee. Only the captains and a few crewmen are Indonesian. And they are no more than dummy captains. This kind of trick became more widespread with the passing of Fishing Law No. 45/2009, which banned foreign vessels from catching fish in Indonesian waters.
Indonesia needs a comprehensive strategy to develop the fishing industry, not a 'lame' law. Look at China, the world's top fish producer, even though its territorial waters are far smaller than those of Indonesia. They did not pass a stupid law, but drew up a blueprint to revive the fishing industry. In the last two decades, this new superpower has given incentives, such as cheap credit, to businessmen who build fishing fleets for international waters. This is why Chinese fishing vessels are to be found in large numbers in the oceans. In every province with a coastline, the nation has opened at least one maritime or nautical university, along with shipbuilding and fishing industries.
As a result, their fishing industry has taken off. Their fishing industry catches 19 million tons of fish per year, while Indonesia only nets 5.5 million tons. Without a blueprint, Indonesia will continue to import fish stolen from its own seas. (*)
