Indonesia Still Open to Illegal Foreign Fishing Boats

Medan, Indonesia (News Today) - The North Sumatra Fishermen’s Association executive board has asked sea security personnel to put in order and control the activities of foreign fishing boats still illegally operating in North Sumatra’s territorial sea.

"The operation of the foreign fishing boats are causing a loss to the traditional fishermen, because their catch had been declining," Secretary of the All Indonesia Fishermen’s Associations Central Executive Board Ihya Ulumuddin said in Medan Monday.

He said that ordinarily, the catch of the small fishermen was quite good, reaching 60 to 80 kilograms, but following the illegal operation of the foreign fishermen their catch reached only 30 to 40 kilograms.

"The problem is that most of the fishing areas of the local fishermen had already been controlled by the foreign fishermen with their sophisticated fishing gear," Ulumuddin said.

He said according to reports of the local smaller fishermen from Batubara Regency in the North Sumatra’s western coast, they often found the foreign fishermen illegally fishing in the sea. And, he added that two Malaysian fishing boats had been caught by the police while illegally fishing near Pandan Island waters in Batubara regency, North Sumatra.

The police has arrested 8 crew members of Thai nationality, in addition to several tons of fish catch as evidence, and the ship’s captain was a Malaysian. The foreign fishing boat is currently at Belawan port and still being legally processed by the North Sumatra water police authorities.

Source : kompas

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