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ifty fish-processing companies in Bitung, North Sulawesi, have sent thousands of workers home following the implementation of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministerial Decrees No. 56 and No. 57/2014 on a moratorium on fishing permits and a ban on transshipments.

North Sulawesi Pajeko Fishermen’s Association (Asneko) chair Lucky R. Sariowan said the regulation was a blow to the provincial fisheries industry, with the local unemployment rate rising from 7.27 percent in February 2014 to 8.69 percent in February 2015.

According to Asneko data, 10,502 workers were made redundant in 2014 and 2015, with a concurrent drop in purchasing power of Rp 250 billion (US$18.946 million).

“A pajeko ship of above 30 gross tonnage normally requires a crew of 30. If 10 ships stop operating, then 300 fishermen lose their jobs,” Lucky said, referring to a kind of local fishing vessel.

He added that the Bitung fishery industry had suffered losses of up to Rp 8.7 trillion in 2015 due to the moratorium and ban.

Besides ship crews, the policy has also caused losses to fisheries employers, who have had to change their previous transshipment patterns and fish production decreased by almost 30 percent in 2015.

A report issued by Bank Indonesia’s provincial office showed that the volume of fish traded in North Sulawesi in the third trimester of 2014 was recorded at 5.16 percent, but decreased to 3.21 percent in the same trimester the following year.

Lucky said fisheries employers in the province had difficulties in securing licenses to operate new ships, particularly those of over 30 GT. He criticized the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry for what he deemed an overreaction to the problem of overfishing, citing the ministry’s lack of concrete data on fish resources and the fishing industry in Sulawesi and Maluku waters.

“We support the policy, especially on arresting foreign ships stealing fish from our waters, but its impact on local fishermen was not anticipated by the ministry,” Lucky said.

He suggested that the ban on fish catching should have been applied only to those fishing illegally, rather than generalized to all domestic fishermen and employers.

“Supervision and surveillance should be tightened through administrative sanctions, but it should be done in a humane way,” said Lucky, adding that many fish processing units in Bitung and Manado had also ceased operating.

Provincial councilor Yongkie Limen similarly lambasted the permit moratorium and transshipment ban, claiming it had “paralyzed” the fishery sector in the region. “How can a processing unit operate if it has no fish to process?” asked Yongkie, who has a background in the fisheries business.

He was further upset, he added, to learn Bitung was now forced to import fish from India because of a supply shortage, despite Indonesia always having been a net fish-exporter.

Yongkie said that the ministry’s policy had not just affected large-scale industries, but also derivative sectors employing factory workers, fishermen, fishing ship crews, collectors, retailers and workers at fish auction sites, as well as consumers.

Bitung fish port head Frits Penehas Lesnussa declined to comment on the ministry’s policy or the situation of the local fishing industry. However, he confirmed the decrease in fish production at Bitung.

Jimrits Lohonauman, 40, a former member of a pajeko crew, said he had had to switch occupation to working at a construction site after being asked by the owner of the fishing ship to stop working for him at the end of 2015.

Switching occupation has led to a decrease in Jimrits’ earnings. While previously he was able to take home millions of rupiah a month to support his family through sea-fishing, now he can barely cover his wife and children’s basic needs.

“My child is a third-grader at a junior high school now and is preparing to enroll at a senior high school. My wife has to sell cakes and sweet ice at the market in order to get extra money,” Jimrits said.