22 March 2015

Combat Indonesia Illegal Fishing To Be A World Class Maritime Power

By : Rida Desyani
Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia
ri_desyani@yahoo.com

Indonesia is the worlds largest archipelagic state and geo-strategically located at the crossroads of
Indian and Pacific Oceans that controls some of the worlds most traversed sealanes. Indonesia became the
center of the ASEAN Maritime Cooperation that is included in the ASEAN Political - Security Community
( APSC ) Blueprint . This makes Indonesia has a vital role towards the ASEAN Political - Security Community (
APSC ) in 2015. However , the facts on the ground show the superiority of Indonesia's marine area is not
directly proportional to the power and capability of Indonesia in keeping the sea . One of the Indonesias biggest
maritime security problems is illegal fishing. Illegal fishing have been a serious problem in Indonesia that
havent been solved yet. So many illegal fishermen came to Indonesia waters and stealing enormous natural
wealth and use it without noticing. The biggest culprits, however, are its neighbour and ASEAN member states.
Every year more than 240 billion rupiahs lost because of illegal fishing. This loss make a significant impact to
Indonesian economy development . It will be ashamed if Indonesia cant protect its maritime area considering
Indonesia have a huge potential of natural resources in the ocean and strong military power. So, to be world
class maritime power, Indonesia have to capable of protect its rich natural resources especially combat the
illegal fishing.
According to the terminology contained in the department of fisheries and marine, illegal fishing is
a foreign fishing vessel that catches fish in Indonesian territory without having the complete document, or the
ship has a document but do not obey the rules, for example breaking fishing ground. Especially on foreign
fishing vessels that did not have a letter or document. The practice is mostly done in the illegal pirate fishing is
fishing or poaching, which is catching fish by another state without the permission of the state concerned, or in
other words illegal fishing by foreign parties. So in other words, illegal fishing is no different with transnational
crime because these crimes are also crimes that transcend borders of other countries.
Illegal fishing can cause a very significant impact for Indonesia, such as breaking sovereignty and
loss of natural resources. Illegal fishing often occured in maritime borderline such as Sulawesi Sea, Malaka

Strait, Natuna Sea, and Arafuru Sea. For example, in 2010 there are 108 illegal fishing case in Natuna sea with
total losses of 30 billion rupiahs (DKP Natuna, 2011). As an information, FAO (Food and Agriculture of United
Nations) says that Indonesia losses from illegal fishing is 240 billion rupiahs each year. It shows the
vulnerability of Indonesia's border regions against security threats at sea . Indonesias maritime state borderline
with Malaysia , Singapore , the Philippines , and Australia is often an entrance for crimes at sea . Perpetrators of
this illegal fishing also was derived from ASEAN members , such as Malaysia , Thailand , Vietnam and the
Philippines . This is certainly contrary to the spirit and essence of the ASEAN Maritime Cooperation ASEAN
Vision 2015 Political - Security Community was initiated in 2009.
Indonesia have a strong millitary power, but the fact prove that it just focused on the mainland. The
lack of Indonesian navy military capability make the country vulnerable to threats and security problems in
maritime area such as illegal fishing . Indonesian navy have a serious obligation towards maritime security,
because one of their duties is to patrol and guard Indonesias immense coastline, territorial waters and Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ) of Indonesia. But until now, Indonesian navy has not been able to eradicate illegal
fishing significantly. However, Indonesian navy only have 317 units patrol ships while according to Chief of
Naval Staff, Ade Supandi, every 2-3 mil of Indonesian sea must be guarded by one patrol boat. Indonesia need
at least 500 patrol boat to guard its marine areas (Merdeka, 2015).

Marine fisheries sector is supporting the Indonesian economy at the moment is very necessary to build
and maintain the integrity of the nation and the state, so that this issue be a major factor and a threat if ignored.
If still ignored the natural wealth that should be used will be exhausted and how to maintain the territorial sea if
it does not have the budget to buy ships, radar, and infrastructure that support for defense and security of the
territory of Indonesia. As mentioned earlier that illegal fishing is a threat that must be prioritized to be
addressed, because in addition to environmental issues crime, illegal fishing also affects other sectors, such as
defense and natural resources. A good strategy have to be implemented to prevent illegal fishing. The strategies
to overcome illegal fishing area increasing Indonesias patrol vessels, use sufficient technology such as coastal
radar and vessel monitoring system, make a multilateral coorporation and do a serious action to the illegal fisher
such as sinking the ships and court punishment.

Military experts say that such insufficient naval assets make the country vulnerable to growing
maritime threats. So, the first thing that Indonesia have to do is increasing sea patrol vessels for the navy and
tightened security in the weakest point of Indonesia such as maritime state borderline. One of the concern in

here is, Indonesia have a limited budget. PT PAL Surabaya as a biggest shipbuilding in Indonesia only make a
ships body, but usually the machines is imported from other countries. Therefore, Indonesia can learn and
cooperate with South Korea to enhance shipbuilding in Indonesia. South Korea has a proud maritime naval
history and shipping remains an important national industry. Today, South Korea is better known for being
home to some of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world, such as Daewoo Shipbuildings. For this
reason, it is no surprise to anyone that after China, South Korea is the largest shipbuilding country in the world.

The second is increasing awareness by using advanced technology such as coastal radar that can be
installed in the vicinity of track illegal vessels, radar can be synergized with the air force's radar survailence and
the navy. Because without the sensing device, the competent institutions will lack essential information about
the location of the occurrence of illegal fishing and modus operandi that continues to grow. For Indonesian
vessels, installation of VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) on fishing vessels that already have licenses either
local or foreign ships is reccomended. This mean that the movement of ships can be monitored . For the initial
stage, the Office of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DKP) can perform the installation based on the priority scale
such as big DWT (Dead Weight Tonnage) ships and foreign fishing vessels operating in Indonesian territory.

The third is making a multilateral coorporation with ASEAN country to solve illegal fishing. Indonsia
can improve a multilateral coorporation with ASEAN countries in addressing security issues in the oceans.
Indonesia has continually sought to encourage ASEAN countries to have a plan against illegal fishing, because
illegal fishing happened to others ASEAN countries too. Through ASEAN Maritime Forum (AMF) and
ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Center, Indonesia can encourage ASEAN to combat illegal fishing in Indonesia
and ASEAN. Therefore, cooperation at the level of ASEAN and the ASEAN action plan in accordance PoliticalSecurity Community Blueprint is expected to combat illegal fishing and the ASEAN countries to stop illegal
fishing in Indonesian territory. The others things Indonesia need to do is developing human resources and
restrict the regulation.

Improved human resources through seminars, whether domestic, regional and

international scale, upgrading law, relating the harmonious coordination with law officials or officers who deal
with illegal fishing.

A serious action need to be showed by Indonesia to illegal fisher. Nowadays, Susi Pudjiastuti as the
Minister of Oceans and Fisheries in Indonesia make a serious action against illegal fishing, firing and sinking
fishing boats. In 21 May 2015, Indonesian authorities blew up and sank 41 foreign fishing vessels as a warning
against poaching in the country's waters. The vessels from a variety of countries were blown up in several ports

across the archipelago, which has some of the world's richest fishing grounds. Fisheries Minister Susi
Pudjiastuti said Indonesia has blown up several other boats since the current government
took over last year after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was elected. Part of his platform
was to preserve Indonesia's oceans to ensure future generations will benefit from its rich
waters. Actions taken to make foreign fishing vessels wary in other words to provide a deterrence effect on
foreign vessels who have done things over and over again.

Another action that Indonesia can do is court punishment. After the ship was arrested, the ship handed
over to the court immediately to check if the ships meet the law qualifications or not. After receiving
information from investigators (navy officers) that the ships doesnt meet the law qualifications, then the
problems files reviewed to determine the size of fines to be paid, or how many years imprisonment can be
implemented by the thief fishermen. A large amount of fines must be given to Indonesia, so it will give a
detterance effect to the culprits.

As an archipelagic country with huge maritime area, illegal fishing is a very serious crime to be deal
with by the Indonesian people, it is considered more important than the issue of terrorism is growing today. Just
because this time Indonesia was serious about building his economic nation toward prosperity of the people who
expected the creation of more stability to the Indonesian nation, so that the maritime sector in this regard llegal
fishing became the main beam in supporting the economy. In addition, illegal fishing also result directly and
indirectly on the state sovereignty and the loss of natural resources in the ocean. Therefore, as a very important
problem that could threaten the security of Indonesia, should be overcome by continuous sea patrols by the
navy, survailance radar installation, the installation of VMS, multilateral cooperation with ASEAN countries and
developing human resources. As more major problems of terrorism, it can be said that illegal fishing is a major
problem for Indonesia maritime security. At the same time as a form of crime that can result in a sovereign
country so need to solve those problems seriously.

The welfare of Indonesian people, especially the fishermen can be improved by developing the
fisheries sector and use of marine areas as the reinforcement of security in terms of economic sectors that will
affect its ability to maintain the integrity of the nation in a vast sea. If Indonesia can overcome illegal fishing
problem, certainly Indonesia can be a world class maritime power.

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from

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Food

and

Agriculture

Organization

[2015]

Indonesia

Fishery

Data.

Available

from

http://www.fao.org/fi/oldsite/FCP/en/idn/profile.htm [Accesed: 20 May 2015]

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Prameswaran,

Prashants

[2015]

Natuna

is

Indonesian,

Not

Chinese.

Available

from

http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/natuna-is-indonesian-not-chinese-jokowi-adviser/ [Accesed: 20 May 2015]