April 17, 2023 — India, Ecuador, and Indonesia remained the top three shrimp exporters to the U.S. in February 2023 but numbers continue to decline.
India sent 19,566 metric tons (MT), or 43 million pounds, of shrimp to the U.S. in February 2023, down from February 2022, when it exported 22,868 MT, or 50 million pounds. India has been the top exporter of shrimp to the U.S. for the past nine years.
July 20, 2022 — A year after it was introduced as a replacement for a type of fishing net long seen as unsustainable, the square-mesh seine net has prompted concerns from fisheries experts in Indonesia.
The jaring tarik berkantong net was meant to be the less-destructive successor to the widely used cantrang net, which the Indonesian fisheries ministry effectively banned in July 2021. On paper, there are clear differences between the two: the jaring tarik berkantong has a square-shaped mesh, with a mesh size of 5 centimeters (2 inches), making it less likely for baby fish to be caught than in the diamond-meshed cantrang, with a mesh size of 2.5 cm (1 in).
In the year since the change was imposed, reports have been published and submitted to the fisheries ministry about violations related to the use of both cantrang and its replacement. In a recent interview with Mongabay, Oktavianto said the only difference between cantrang and jaring tarik berkantong is the shape of the mesh. In practice, both nets are dragged close to the seafloor, similar to trawling — a practice that’s prohibited in Indonesia, Oktavainto noted.
The ban was initially imposed in 2015 by Susi Pudjiastuti, the fisheries minister at the time, who blamed the net for depleting fish populations at unsustainable rates and destroying coral reefs when it snagged on them. But the ban faced a massive pushback from fishing communities on the north coast of Java, a region known as Pantura on Indonesia’s most populous island. These fishers have traditionally used cantrang in the Java Sea, and they historically represent a sizable voting bloc, making the cantrang ban a loaded political issue. In response, the fisheries ministry exempted the Pantura fishers from the ban and gave them a three-year grace period to give up their cantrang nets.
However, the ban was officially lifted in November 2020 by Edhy Prabowo, who replaced Susi as the fisheries minister, citing efforts to boost catches and in turn attract greater investment in Indonesia’s marine capture fishery. (Edhy was arrested a week later on unrelated corruption charges and was later sentenced to nine years in jail.)
June 14, 2022 — Indonesia has issued a much-anticipated decree to boost the protection of Indonesian deckhands working aboard foreign commercial and fishing vessels.
The move comes in response to a pending lawsuit accusing the government of failing to enshrine protections that could have prevented a long history of abusive and even deadly treatment of these sailors.
The government says the regulation ratified on June 8 by the administration of President Joko Widodo is designed to streamline the recruitment and placement process of Indonesian migrant deckhands, and improve measures to protect their labor rights. The government decree, a derivative of the country’s 2017 law on migrant worker protection, is applicable to foreign commercial and fishing vessels, including distant-water boats.
A key change introduced in the new regulation includes having the Ministry of Manpower as the official authority to produce the permit for recruitment agencies to assign candidate migrant workers. Previously, the Ministry of Transportation could also issue a similar permit. Many observers have called out the overlapping authorities for undermining legal protections for the migrant deckhands.
March 30, 2022 — At least one-third of all recorded fishery offenses are associated with industrial fishing vessels – specifically just 20 companies and 450 industrial fishing vessels – and over half of the industrial offenses have Chinese beneficial ownership.
According to “Fish Crimes in the Global Oceans,” prepared for ocean conservation group Oceana and published in Science Advances, 59 percent of offences in the industrial fishing sector are related to Chinese owned vessels. Fifteen percent were tied to Indonesian vessels and 12 percent were associated with South Korean vessels.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
November 12, 2021 — The joint ‘Marine Border Command’ operation was announced after the ABF was alerted last month that Indonesian fishing crews were pillaging marine life at the pristine, previously untouched Rowley Shoals, a protected coral reef 260 kilometres west of Broome.
Their presence and aggressive tactics left local charter tour companies in WA’s North West fearful for their safety and livid at the lack of authoritative response.
Exclusive drone footage obtained by WAtoday showed an influx of foreign ships in the sanctioned Rowley Shoals marine park zone, their crew members walking on the coral reef and fishing illegally.
Local boat skippers said it was the first time they had seen Indonesian crews at Rowley Shoals, as new data above showed 103 vessels were intercepted in the first three months of 2020-21 alone.
One tourist operator reported illegal finning in the area, with sharks spotted still alive, lying on the water’s surface, while another charter boat skipper saw Indonesian-marked plastic rubbish for the first time within the sanctioned marine park.
Read the full story at News Nation USA
June 10, 2021 — The U.S. government blocked imports of seafood Friday from the entire fleet of a Chinese company that authorities say forced crew members to work in slave-like conditions that led to the deaths of several Indonesian fishermen last year.
Customs and Border Protection said it will place an immediate hold on any imports linked to the more than 30 vessels operated by Dalian Ocean Fishing, under a U.S. law that bars goods suspected to have been produced with forced labor.
Imports from Dalian, which primarily fishes for high-grade tuna, have exceeded $20 million as recently as 2018. Amid financial troubles, and a greater focus on the Asian market, the shipments have dropped. CBP said the company shipped $1.8 million worth of cargo to the U.S. in 2019; nearly $321,000 in 2020; and $763,000 through April 30 of this year.
“We will not tolerate any amount derived from forced labor,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters as he announced the measure.
CBP issued what is known as a withhold release order that halts shipments that have suspected links to forced labor, under a law that has been on the books for decades, ostensibly to protect U.S. producers from unfair competition.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Herald
June 3, 2021 — Greenpeace Southeast Asia is claiming that 20 Indonesian manning agencies and 26 fishing firms from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nauru are allegedly involved in forced labor practices against Indonesian migrant fishers.
The allegations were presented by the organization in a report released 31 May, “Forced Labour at Sea: The Case of Indonesian Migrant Fishers,” released in partnership with Indonesian migrant workers union Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (SBMI).
May 3, 2021 — In February 2020, Rio (not his real name), a crab and sea snail processor in Langkat regency on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, found his business drying up. Normally at this time of year his business would have been booming from seafood exports to China and Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year festival.
Like many others in small-scale seafood supply chains across the world, Rio was feeling the impacts of COVID-19.
In the early months of the pandemic, community lockdowns and public health risks combined with restrictions on worker movement and seafood trade forced small-scale fishing communities in several parts of the world to close down their businesses. They were left in a state of economic and social uncertainty.
Some small, local seafood vendors, like Indonesian pedagang along-along who sell fish, vegetables and other perishable foods from motorbikes, adapted. They were able to continue selling seafood despite the pandemic.
How did they cope? What helped or hindered others in small-scale seafood supply chains as they dealt with uncertainties generated by COVID-19?
February 26, 2021 — After being at sea for two long years, 37-year-old Indonesian fisherman Darmaji finally stepped off the Taiwanese tuna fishing vessel he had been working on and back onto firm ground in May of 2020. Verbally abused daily, Darmaji’s largely Indonesian crew of 22 often worked 18-hour days—even when seven-meter waves flooded the boat interior—and were typically allowed to sleep for only three hours. Meals consisted of gummy rice, boiled chicken or fish, and, at times, even bait fish. The crew had to pay for any other food they consumed and drank largely distilled saltwater.
As if the daily indignities weren’t enough, Darmaji didn’t receive the full pay he was promised in his contract, and even had to pay a $1,200 security deposit before receiving his monthly salary. “It’s a prison at sea,” Darmaji said.
Lured by the promise of high wages offered by recruitment agencies, Darmaji is one of an estimated 23,500 Indonesians working on foreign boats. Globally, capture fishing employs 27 million people, primarily from developing countries. Indonesia is one of the biggest sources of cheap migrant labor for fishing fleets from China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Darmaji experienced verbal abuse, debt manipulation, underpayment, and atrocious living conditions, but he is one of the luckier ones—thousands of other forced laborers also endure physical abuse at sea. Beatings for insubordination are not uncommon, said Max Schmid, deputy director at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to raise public awareness of environmental and human rights abuses. One worker described getting locked in a freezer, and later electrocuted with a tool used to kill tuna, he notes. Schmid and colleagues have interviewed hundreds of Indonesian fishermen about working conditions on distant water fishing vessels mainly flagged to Taiwan, China or South Korea; over 20 percent of them described physical violence.
January 29, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:
The Indonesia pole-and-line and handline, skipjack and yellowfin tuna of Western and Central Pacific archipelagic waters is the third tuna fishery in Indonesia to meet the globally recognized standard for sustainable fishing, set by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an environmental non-profit.
The certification signals an encouraging result for the Indonesian Pole and Line and Handline Tuna Fisheries Association (AP2HI) and the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF) that manage the fishery and have committed to ensuring all Indonesian tuna fisheries become sustainable.
To be MSC certified, a fishery must show the stock it catches is healthy, that it minimizes its impact on the environment and has effective management in place.
Around 60% of the total 11,000 tons caught by the certificate holders is yellowfin tuna, distributed as loin, poke (pronounced poh-keh) and saku, while the certified skipjack will be sold as frozen product to export markets in the U.S and UK.
Eight fisheries are involved, consisting of 380 fishing vessels, scattered throughout the Indonesian archipelago from North Sulawesi and North Maluku to the Banda Sea, and East and West Flores.
Independent assessors, NSF International, determined the fishery should be certified following detailed assessments and stakeholder consultations with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) – the regional body responsible for 60% of the world’s tuna catch – as well as national and provincial government.
As MSC fisheries are expected to meet a high bar for sustainable fishing, the association has eight goals it must meet within five years to retain its certificate, relating to harvest strategies and stock management.
The MSC is working with the fishing industry in Indonesia, to help more fisheries to achieve sustainable fishing.
Members of Indonesian Pole and Line and Handline Tuna Fisheries Association (AP2HI) have been in a fishery improvement project since 2014 and have been in part supported through MSC’s Fish for Good project.
In 2019, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the MSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), affirming a joint commitment to strengthening collaboration on sustainable fishing. In May 2020, the North Buru and Maluku Fair Trade Fishing Associations, Indonesian Handline Yellowfin Tuna was certified to the MSC Standards, the second fishery in Indonesia, demonstrating the success of the MoU.
Asia Pacific Director at the Marine Stewardship Council, Patrick Caleo, stated: “We extend our congratulations to AP2HI for their hard work and success in progressing another tuna fishery to achieve MSC certification. Managing various fisheries with different specifications for assessment needs a rigorous strategy and clear implementation.”
Acting Director General of Capture Fisheries, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Ir. Muhammad Zaini, M.M. said: “Again, we have successfully shown the world our commitment towards sustainable tuna fishing in Indonesia. As the one of the largest tuna producers in the world, it is vital we enable the certification journey through a fisheries improvement project in order to sustainably grow while remaining viable for future livelihoods. Support from stakeholders to our small-scale tuna fisheries which help accelerate progress towards sustainability, is pivotal to this goal. Indonesia is proud to have our third tuna fishery meet the highest global fisheries sustainability standard.”
Chairwoman of the Pole & Line and Handline Fishery Association, Janti Djuari said: “Working together towards sustainable fisheries has been our commitment since 2012. Certification owned by the association is a synergy of collective industry with support from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, local government, business, IPNLF and other stakeholders – and provides value added to the sustainable skipjack and yellowfin tuna stock. Even though 2020 was colored by the pandemic impacting the tuna business in Indonesia, this certification is a new start. We are confident that this certification will encourage our members in the association to develop a more sustainable and traceable fishing practice.
Director of IPNLF Southeast Asia, Jeremy Crawford, said: “We are pleased to be part of this important process of building value in the local one-by-one tuna supply chains. Together with our local partners, and with the support of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), IPNLF has been able to realize significant improvements in fishery operations, governance, and in securing livelihoods. Members of IPNLF and supply chain partners, such as AP2HI, play an important role in securing the sustainability pillars – environmental, social and economic benefits – which is our first priority. This is the only way to ensure that vulnerable communities are securing access to food security and economic well-being for the long term.”