"Illegal fishing has become not only a local but also a global enemy," the countrys minister of fisheries and maritime affairs, Susi Pudjiastuti, said here, Friday.
Illegal fishing activities are not only fish poaching, but also smuggling of various kinds of goods, she noted, when speaking at the 56th anniversary commemoration event of Economic and Business Faculty of Surabaya-based state Airlangga University.
"Human smuggling, narcotic drugs and other malpractices are also involved. Even weapons used by rebels across the various regions, such as in Poso, have been smuggled through the sea," she noted.
"At least five million tons of narcotic drugs are smuggled through the sea every week into Indonesia. It impacts our younger generation who fall prey to such narcotic drugs," she remarked.
The minister stated she had met with the United Nations to convey the need to issue Rights of Ocean.
"More than 71 percent of the world is sea. Unless it is protected, it will be ruined," she stressed.
She mentioned that President Joko Widodo had already issued Presidential Regulation Number 44, 2016, to close the countrys fishery business to foreign investment, including for foreign ships, personnel as well as capital, so that the business would totally belong to the Indonesian people.
However, the policy is not enough yet, as larger foreign ships are still conducting illegal fishing using trawls in high seas that destroy the marine ecosystem, she added.
In view of this, Susi maintained an institution should be established to regulate the countrys distance fishing. According to her the agency that had the authority to produce such a policy was the United Nations.
(H-YH/KR-BSR/B003/B019)
Editor: Bayu Kuncahyo
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
