The boats include 34 Philippine-flagged boats, 33 Vietnamese, 21 Thai, and six Malaysian.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - In a bid to demonstrate its commitment to fighting fish poaching, Indonesia has sunk 101 foreign fishing boats for conducting illegal operations in its maritime territory until October.
"As many as 101 boats have been sunk," Asep Burhanuddin, the director general of fishery resource monitoring of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, stated here on Friday.
The boats include 34 Philippine-flagged boats, 33 Vietnamese, 21 Thai, and six Malaysian.
Of the sunk boats, one each was from Indonesia and China, while two were from Papua New Guinea.
"Tomorrow (Oct. 31), six more boats would be sunk, and all of them are from neighboring countries," he pointed out.
The People Coalition for Fishery Justice (Kiara) has urged President Joko Widodos government to not only entirely focus on the poaching problem but should prioritize improving the welfare of the coastal communities.
"President Widodo and his cabinet must not be fixated on eradicating IUU fishing," Kiaras secretary general, Abdul Hakim, remarked on Tuesday.
He said that eradicating fish poaching was only a small part of the states duties to improve the welfare of the coastal communities.
He said the most important aspect is to improve the welfare of the people by ensuring ease of mobility and affordable and quality staple items in coastal areas and isolated islands.
Hence, he emphasized that the government should, in the short term, focus on sea resource management, including fish and salt management, from the upstream to downstream areas.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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