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aritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has called on like-minded governments to share monitoring data and vessel information to improve integrated global efforts to battle fisheries-related crimes.

Susi said during a recent panel discussion on fisheries crimes in Singapore that the exchange of such information would allow countries dealing with the immediate threat of illegal fishing to better monitor their territorial waters despite a lack of resources, as was the case for Indonesia.

'€œI think it would be beneficial if we could share data with all countries [on account of the difficulty of fully monitoring territorial waters]. If we work together, we can retrieve data from other satellites [showing] where the vessels are coming from,'€ she said.

Susi was in Singapore to attend the second Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Conference (ECEC), an event hosted by Interpol and the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) aimed at raising awareness on environmental crimes such as illegal fishing.

Susi also cited the case of the Silver Sea 2, a cargo vessel captured by the Indonesian Navy in Aceh waters in August after processing data from Australian satellites.

It was caught flying a Thai flag despite having obtained now-expired permits from Indonesian officials in June last year.

The 2,300 gross-ton vessel was accused of taking cargo out of the country without proper documentation, committing illicit transshipments and operating without a functioning vessel monitoring system (VMS).

Its operator, PT Pacific Glory Lestari, part of the Mabiru Group fleet in Ambon that had been flagged for infringements in a compliance audit, recently tried and failed to push through a pretrial motion claiming that the arrest was unlawful.

Susi said that many more such vessels operated freely across borders, and would not hesitate to find new fishing grounds once Indonesia was poaching-free.

'€œI think this is what happens everywhere; [illegal fishing vessels] never go home, [...] they only dock when they need repairs,'€ she said.

Emphasizing the importance of collaboration, Susi also announced Indonesia'€™s participation in the Global Fishing Watch, a Google-sponsored project that broadcasts commercial fishing activities worldwide using the Automatic Identification System (AIS) network.

Meanwhile, the director general for Pew Charitable Trust'€™s '€œending illegal fishing'€ campaign, Tony Long, supported Indonesia'€™s bid to encourage the sharing of such information.

'€œI think in Indonesia, the thought that there are so many islands involved, and the fact that you have other countries to the north that are also having problems monitoring their fleets, you'€™ve got to start having regional cooperation to make it work,'€ Long said during the panel discussion earlier this week.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has pledged to reform Indonesia'€™s maritime sector, where rampant poaching has prevailed over the past few decades.

Yet, the country continues to struggle with the problem of weak law enforcement encompassing all 17,000 of its islands.

In a recent license compliance audit on 1,132 foreign-built fishing vessels, the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry found that all vessels had in some way violated existing laws and regulations. As a result, the ministry revoked 291 permits, suspended 61 and issued notices for another 95 licenses.

According to Mas Achmad Santosa, the head of the illegal fishing prevention task force, the ministry plans to submit its findings to the Global Record of Fishing Vessels, an initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

'€œWe will share the complete data of vessels in an effort to maintain transparency,'€ Achmad told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. '€œThe exchange of data is part of larger efforts to battle [illegal fishing and related crimes] on a global scale.'€