Saving Seafood

North Atlantic, Inc. presents fisheries management model at sustainable fisheries conference in Jakarta

August 18, 2016 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Economist magazine convened a group of investors, government representatives, non-profit organizations and multi-lateral agencies to discuss how to drive investment aimed at addressing the decline of wild fish stocks.

Presenting as a panelist at the South-East Asia and Pacific Regional Fisheries Summit, Jerry Knecht, founder and President of Portland, Maine based North Atlantic, Inc (NAI), reviewed the progress of his team’s community based fishery management model. On the heels of successful fundraising in 2015, NAI broke ground on their first fisheries management center in March. This is one of four planned in Indonesia.

The NAI story quickly became a focal point in discussing how to increase investment in sustainable fisheries. When asked about keys to attracting capital, Knecht explained a fisheries company must first mitigate risk. “[We] work with the value chain. By understanding the whole value chain and working with the fishery itself, we start to distribute some of the rents from the value chain to fisheries, incenting them to follow sustainable practices.” Knecht believes long term sustainability begins with the coastal communities harvesting the fisheries.

See the full press release here

Indonesia to Sink 71 Foreign Fishing Boats Amid South China Sea Tensions

August 16, 2016 — Indonesia will cap Wednesday’s Independence Day celebrations by scuttling as many as 71 impounded foreign vessels — mostly Vietnamese but also a handful of Chinese — to signal its determination to protect its sovereignty over lucrative fishing grounds in the South China Sea.

The destruction of the boats comes amid simmering regional tensions over territorial disputes in the water. Former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said the main challenge facing the country was to ensure the message wasn’t misinterpreted.

Natalegawa said the signal has to be conveyed that Indonesia is determined to protect its national sovereignty and territorial integrity. “But some of the risk in our region nowadays is precisely the risk of misperception, miscalculation, minor incidents becoming bigger crises,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “The region as a whole should not lose the habit of open dialogue and diplomatic communication.”

Since the end of 2014, Indonesia has destroyed more than 170 foreign vessels from various nations as it has tried to fend off Chinese claims that waters surrounding the Natuna Islands are part of traditional Chinese fishing grounds.

In June, President Joko Widodo held a cabinet meeting on the KRI Imam Bonjol, a warship that patrols the waters, and last month Indonesia’s popular Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said she wanted to “celebrate Independence Day this year in Natuna, where I will witness the sinking of many foreign vessels,” later declaring that only Indonesians “can catch fish in Indonesia.”

Read the full story from Bloomberg

Researchers register success in breeding Pacific blue tangs aka ‘Finding Dory’ fish

July 25, 2016 — You can call it ‘Finding Dory’ effect, as a rise has been witnessed in the sales of Pacific blue tang since the movie has been released. Blue tangs can only be captured in the wild. As per experts, the methods used for the same are environmentally harmful.

For past many years, researchers have been tried to replicate the species; mating, hatching and growing behavior. Researchers from the University of Florida have achieved success in the same and have been able to breed Pacific blue tangs.

The research was carried out by the university researchers along with Rising Tide Conservation and the SeaWorld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. The species is considered to be the most difficult fish. In fact, only 12.5 to 15% of aquarium creatures can be bred in captivity. It has now become vital to increase the percentage.

As mentioned above, only method to get them is from the wild. Blue tangs are not going to become extinct, as they reproduce in large number and live in reefs across the world. But reefs are what giving concerns to scientists.

Read the full story at NorcalNews

Indonesia Accuses China of Treating Fishing Waters as Own

June 21, 2016 — Indonesia signaled a harder stance over incursions by Chinese fishing boats in its waters, saying the encroachments appeared to be part of an effort by Beijing to extend its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Indonesia’s navy last week detained a vessel fishing off the Natuna Islands and arrested seven fishermen after firing warning shots in the air, according to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. China’s foreign ministry said the men were operating in “China’s traditional fishing” grounds, “where China and Indonesia have overlapping claims for maritime rights and interests.”

“We suspect that this is structured activity because they were guarded, which means that it was blessed by the government,” Rear Admiral A. Taufiq R., commander of Indonesia’s Western Fleet, told reporters on Tuesday in Jakarta, adding the fishing boat was shot at when it refused to stop and that no one was injured. “That was why China raised a protest, because they think that the area is theirs.”

More Chinese fishing boats have been detected in the vicinity this year, he said. “We need to resolve this issue. If not, they will make a one-sided claim to the waters.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Dozens of countries just agreed to shut pirate fishermen out of their ports. Here’s why.

June 9, 2016 — Indonesia has a ruthless strategy for dealing with pirates: blow up their boats.

Over the past two years, the Indonesian Navy has seized more than 100 vessels flagged from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines — all accused of fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. Whenever this happens, authorities detain the crew, load the empty boat with explosives, and let it burn as a warning to others:

Except it doesn’t work. Or at least it’s not nearly enough. There are always more boats, more desperate fishermen looking for work. And the oceans are vast; it’s impossible to board every last pirate ship out there. Last year, New Zealand’s navy spent two weeks chasing illegal fishing vessels at sea before running out of fuel and giving up.

Worldwide, illegal fishing vessels now catch some 26 million tons of fish a year, worth $23.5 billion, or one-fifth of the entire world’s annual wild catch. It’s one of the biggest problems in marine policy. Experts say these catches undermine fishing limits that nations put in place to prevent fish stocks from getting depleted too rapidly and collapsing. Illegal fishing also undercuts the legal fishermen trying to earn a living. And many of these ships end up killing protected species, like sharks.

Read the full story at Vox

Hardships await fishermen lured to Indonesia

April 21, 2016 — “I would never recommend anyone to work at sea,” says a fisherman from Myanmar who lost four fingers in an accident while on a fishing trawler.

Despite a difficult life as a fisherman, Tunlin knew he had to be patient if he wanted to survive. “I couldn’t give up my life at sea,” said the 34-year-old who returned from Ambon Island in Indonesia last year.

Tunlin is among some 2,900 fishermen who have been rescued and repatriated by the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN). The operation, started in 2014, continues to help both Thais and migrants, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, stranded in Indonesia.

Recalling his life before Indonesia, Tunlin said he had worked at a shrimp-peeling shed from the age of 16 in Samut Sakhon province, home to a large Myanmar migrant community. But the meagre earnings –100 baht per day — hardly sufficed.

Read the full story at the Bangkok Post

How China’s fishermen are fighting a covert war in the South China Sea

April 13, 2016 — TANMEN, China — In the disputed waters of the South China Sea, fishermen are the wild card.

China is using its vast fishing fleet as the advance guard to press its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, experts say. That is not only putting Beijing on a collision course with its Asian neighbors, but also introducing a degree of unpredictability that raises the risks of periodic crises.

In the past few weeks, tensions have flared with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam as Chinese fishermen, often backed up by coast guard vessels, have ventured far from their homeland and close to other nations’ coasts. They are just the latest conflicts in China’s long-running battle to expand its fishing grounds and simultaneously exert its maritime dominance.

See the full story at The Washington Post

Indonesia Sinks 23 Foreign Fishing Boats

April 5, 2016 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities on Tuesday blew up 23 foreign vessels that were captured for fishing illegally in the country’s waters.

The boats, 13 from Vietnam and 10 from Malaysia, were blown up simultaneously in seven ports from Tarakan in northern Kalimantan to Ranai on the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti witnessed the destruction, which was coordinated by the navy, coast guard and police, via live-streamed Internet video at her office in downtown Jakarta.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Jail terms sought for men trafficking fishermen in Indonesia

February 27, 2016 — TUAL, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for five Thais and three Indonesians accused of human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry.

The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the slavery was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier.

The victims — 13 fishermen from Myanmar who testified under protection of Indonesia’s Witness and Victim Protection Agency — told the court that they had been tortured, forced to work up to 24 hours a day and were not paid. They also said they were locked up in a prison-like cell in the fishing company’s compound.

In their sentencing demand, prosecutors on Friday sought 4 1/2-year sentences for Thai captain Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron and four countrymen — Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk — as well as Indonesian Hermanwir Martino.

They sought 3 1/2-year sentences for two other Indonesians, Yopi Hanorsian and Muklis Ohoitenan.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Gloucester Daily Times

American Samoan group to be part of US delegation to WCPFC fishery conference in Bali

December 2, 2015 — American Samoa is being represented at the 12th Regular Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fishery Commission set for Dec. 3-8 in Bali, Indonesia and they will be part of the US government delegation. American Samoa and the other insular areas are considered US Participating Territories of the WCPFC.

Marine and Wildlife Department director Ruth Matagi-Tofiga told Samoa News last week that as Head of Fishery (HOF) for American Samoa, she is heading the territorial delegation, which includes Taulapapa Willie Sword, DMWR chief fishery biologist Dr. Domingo Ochavillo and Tri Marine International chief operating officer Joe Hamby.

Samoa News should point out that Matagi-Tofiga, Sword and Hamby are members of the American Samoa Fishery Task Force. Sword represents Pacific Energy on the task force, which also includes a representative of StarKist.

Additionally, Matagi-Tofiga and Sword also represent American Samoa on the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, along with Port Administration director Taimalelagi Dr. Claire Poumele, who is also a member of the Fishery Task Force.

Samoa News understands that among the priorities for Matagi-Tofiga at the meeting in Bali is to improve American Samoa’s economy, improve relationships with other Pacific Island Parties (PIPs), and to build an identity for American Samoa that is distinct from the US as far as fishery management and the American Samoa economy are concerned.

Read the full story at Samoa News