Indonesia’s Anti-Illegal Fishing Task Force, or Satgas 115, scuttled 30 vessels in five separate locations on Monday (22/08), for poaching in the country’s rich oceans.
Tyas Budiman, fisheries resources director of the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry’s monitoring affairs directorate general, said the action took place separately in Pontianak, West Kalimantan; Bitung, North Sulawesi; Riau Island’s Batam; Tahuna in North Sulawesi; and Belawan, North Sumatra.
The scuttling ceremony was directly led by Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti as the commander of Satgas 115 via live streaming from the ministry’s office in Jakarta, Tyas said in a statement on Monday, adding that this was the first of such events this year.
Among the 30 scuttled vessels, 11 were identified as Vietnamese, seven were Filipino and four as Malaysian. The rest were local vessels.
The scuttling was supported by the Indonesian Navy, National Police, Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) and the Attorney General’s Office, Tyas said.
Indonesia, under the leadership of President Joko Widodo, has declared a war on foreign vessels illegally fishing in its waters and has taken a strong stance by sinking them.
The Ministry has so far scuttled 151 vessels for illegal operations, comprised of 50 Vietnamese vessels, 43 Filipino, 21 Thai, 20 Malaysian, two Papua New Guinean, one Chinese and 14 Indonesian.
2016 The Jakarta Globe