December 18, 2014 — After years of neglect, the Indonesian government said on Thursday that it would take a hard line against thousands of illegal foreign fishing vessels that it says rob the local industry of as much as $25 billion a year in lost catches.
In recent weeks, the Indonesian Navy has seized and sunk dozens of foreign fishing boats from neighboring countries like Malaysia and Vietnam. The government said this week that those vessels did not have permission to be in local waters and that they were often in search of high-value species like tuna.
Since assuming office in October as president of this vast sweep of about 18,000 islands, Joko Widodo has made the development of the country’s fisheries and ports a priority. Poaching, which affects some of the country’s poorest citizens and often occurs far out to sea, had received scant attention from Jakarta, but the government has vowed to step up its pursuit of foreign trawlers.
“We are starting a war against illegal fishing,” the country’s maritime and fisheries minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, said in an interview on Thursday. “We will track down and sink every single illegal fishing vessel we catch.”
So far, the minister appears to have the enthusiastic backing of her boss. Mr. Joko said in a speech this week that the capture and destruction of about 30 foreign fishing boats in past weeks was “only a first warning.”
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