T

he government is trying to locate hundreds of boats that have disappeared to avoid law enforcement.

Based on Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry data, 414 fishing boats, formerly owned by foreign companies, have disappeared from the country'€™s waters.

'€œThese boats should be deregistered and [the owners] solve several matters such as taxes and illegal, unregulated and unreported [IUU] fishing practices,'€ Mas Achmad Santosa, the head of the ministry'€™s illegal fishing prevention task force [Satgas 115], told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The ministry suspects that the boats have fled as the country intends to implement a new policy on evaluating permits for foreign fishing boats or foreign-made fishing boats.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti previously imposed a moratorium on the issuance of licenses for fishing vessels weighing more than 30 gross tons (GT). The ministry said the measure was necessary to stem the tide of IUU fishing practices, which had resulted in depleted fish stocks in Indonesian waters.

The moratorium on foreign fishing vessel permits ended on Oct. 31 last year.

'€œIt is possible that the boats have left Indonesia and not returned because the owners took them to their places of origin, mostly Thailand,'€ Mas Achmad said.

Another possibility is the boats left Indonesia even though the moratorium mandated that banned vessels were not to set sail and that matters related to their previous activities should be settled.

Satgas 115 has been instructed to track down the boats. One strategy is to submit the boats'€™ names to Interpol'€™s purple notice database in order to get information on their
movements.

'€œWe will also use flag-state responsibility access by asking the country where the boats have anchored to hand over the boats to Indonesia as the flag state,'€ Mas Achmad added.

International law requires such boats to register in a country, called the flag state. A boat is bound to the law of its flag state. Usually the vessel sails under the flag of the country of registration.

A vessel'€™s flag state exercises regulatory control over the vessel and is required to inspect it regularly, certify the ship'€™s equipment and crew and issue safety and pollution prevention documents.

The government found that 1,132 former foreign boats had violated the regulation, with 718 of them still being in Indonesia at the time.

Following an analysis and evaluation (Anev) audit by Satgas 115, it was revealed that 907 ships '€” roughly 80 percent '€” had committed operational and administrative infractions.

As a result, the ministry revoked 15 business licenses (SIUP) and 279 operational licenses (SIPI/SIKPI), in addition to pressing criminal charges against 18 large fisheries firms.