M

aritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has defended a ministerial regulation on the banning of transshipment, despite protests from the business community and the House of Representatives.

While Ministerial Regulation No. 57/2014 aims to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the rules are a severe blow for local fishermen.

The minister said she would issue guidelines that would allow local fishermen to keep practicing transshipment and bring their catches from fishing sites to a public landing port with verification authority.

She emphasized that local business players would have to be willing to be verified and have their vessels recorded by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry in exchange for being able to continue the practice.

'€œI will prepare implementation guidelines within a week for those stakeholders that want to practice local transshipment. But they have to be verified,'€ Susi said during a hearing with the House'€™s Commission IV in Jakarta on Monday.

Businesses will have to submit information regarding their vessels'€™ gross tonnage (GT), the origin of their vessels and the type of capture instruments used onboard, according to Susi.

'€œThey will also need to have electronic tracking devices switched on at all times, employ qualified observers and install CCTV to deter any illegal activities,'€ she added.

'€œThe ministerial regulation will not be revoked.'€

According to ministry data, many vessels sailing along the northern coastline of Java are out at sea for six to eight months to transship their catches to large tramp service ships that are bound for overseas.

The ministry has discovered 34 trampers totalling 89,065 GT entering and leaving Indonesian borders every 10-20 days, Susi said.

'€œOnly 50 percent of our own fish processing units are being utilized. Our capture data is nowhere near our exports.'€

In regard to Ministerial Regulation No. 56/2014 on the moratorium on fishing-permit issuance, Susi assured local businesses that they would not be affected as long as they had the proper documentation for verification.

Golkar Party lawmaker Anton Sihombing was involved in a heated debate with the minister last Wednesday, when Susi insinuated that the former had ties with perpetrators of IUU fishing.

Anton, who is chairman of the Indonesian Marine and Ocean Watch (IMO-Watch) group, conveyed his innocence at the beginning of the hearing on Monday. '€œI'€™ve never been involved in IUU fishing for as long as I was human,'€ he said.