(The question is) How to manage the sea (so there) is no longer any barbaric fishingJakarta (ANTARA) - Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono has said the ministry will focus on maintaining the sea ecology so that the sea remains healthy and the fish population rises, thereby increasing its economic value.
"The blue economy (responsibility) must be for all parties, not only the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, which is prioritizing protecting the ecology, and the implications for the economy will increase," Trenggono said in a discussion event in Jakarta on Tuesday.
He underlined the two focuses of the ministry in relation to the implementation of blue economy principles --regulation of domestic marine fisheries and law enforcement against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.
Fishermen and large fishing industries in Indonesia are not implementing good governance in fishing activities, and this has the potential to threaten fish populations, he pointed out.
"(The question is) How to manage the sea (so there) is no longer any barbaric fishing," he said. He emphasized the importance of strict regulations and rules so that the extraction of marine resources is carried out in an appropriate manner and the marine economy is sustained in the future.
He stressed that the IUU fishing law must be enforced not only for foreign ships stealing fish in Indonesian waters but also for locals catching fish illegally.
"It turns out that what IUU fishing means is not only our fishing space that is taken by foreign seamen but within the country itself the method of taking fish is illegal. For example, if we allow one thousand ships to sail, there can be more than one thousand ships in the sea," he explained.
These bad fishing practices can threaten the sustainability of Indonesia's marine resources in the future, he opined.
The ministry has prepared a model regulation that stipulates procedures for fishing in Indonesian seas, starting from a maximum quota on fishing, delineating zones in which fishing is allowed, marking special zones for natural fish breeding, to rules for hobbyists fishing in Indonesian waters, he informed.
The ministry aims to create a better Indonesian fishery industry ecosystem in a number of marine fishery production centers to increase added economic value, he added.
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Translator: Aditya Rahman, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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