"The shortcomings in the fisheries law must be covered by enforcing other relevant laws," Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Susi Pudjiastuti said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Susi Pudjiastuti has urged law enforcers to implement all relevant laws to end the practice of illegal fishing in the country.
"The shortcomings in the fisheries law must be covered by enforcing other relevant laws," she said here on Thursday, referring to legislation such as the Shipping Law, the Corruption Law, the Manpower Law and the Customs Law.
She said implementation of these laws would shore up efforts to end not only illegal fishing but also other related crimes.
She said it was important to arrest illegal fish poachers, act against corporations which are the masterminds behind such activity and make it difficult for the perpetrators to escape the force of law.
She said she believed that strong action would act as a deterrent against fish poachers.
The minister said several steps have been taken to tackle the poaching menace, and would continue to be taken, including enforcement of the administrative law under which the fishing business licenses of 15 companies have been revoked so far.
Other administrative law enforcement measures taken by her office included revoking the fish catching licenses of 208 ships and fish shipping licenses of 26 ships.
With regard to criminal law enforcement, Minister Susi said she also took action against 18 big fishing companies.
Based on the data of the Directorate General of Fisheries and Marine Resource Surveillance, a total of 94 cases have been handled so far, involving 52 foreign fishing ships and 42 illegal Indonesian fishing ships.
Of the 52 foreign ships, 33 carried the Vietnamese flag, eight the Philippine flag, six carried the Malaysian flag and five had a Thai flag.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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