Indonesia seeks help to combat illegal fishing

Indonesia has asked for more co-ordinated patrolling with Australia against illegal fishing in talks with Barnaby Joyce.

Indonesia’s Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti met Austalia’s Barnaby Joyce in Jakarta yesterday. Picture: Tri Saputro

Indonesia has asked for more co-ordinated patrolling with Australia against illegal fishing operations in waters near their shared sea boundaries.

Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti made the proposal while meeting Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce in Jakarta yesterday.

The ministers signed a communique of co-operation on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and Ms Susi separately invited Australia to expand co-ordinated patrols near their shared boundaries with East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

IUU is a huge issue for Indonesia, whose sea fisheries have been pillaged by foreign-controlled trawlers and factory vessels, costing the nation $US20 billion ($27bn) annually, Ms Susi estimated earlier this year.

In November she began a progressive shutdown of the offshore trawling industry by embargoing licence renewals for so-called former foreign fishing vessels, mostly operated by foreign companies using Indonesian joint-venture partners as fronts.

In August, the Indonesian navy intercepted a factory ship, Silver Sea 2, near the tip of Aceh, trying to escape to its home port in Thailand.

The vessel had allegedly taken on board fish worth more than $2 million from a trawling fleet operating illegally in the Arafura Sea.

Australian Border Force helped the Indonesians track Silver Sea 2 to its capture.

“You might still remember the Silver Sea ship,” Ms Susi said yesterday.

“They helped us; the images were from their patrols.

“This will be a good collaboration — without Australian help, we have difficulties monitoring all our areas, especially on the borders with PNG and (East Timor).”

The agreement signed yesterday commits Australia and Indonesia to sharing information, building capacity and co-operating with other nations in the region against IUU.

Ms Susi also acknowledged the problem of Indonesian boats encroaching on northern Australian fisheries, although it is a lesser issue.

“I think she actually brought it up with me,” Mr Joyce said. “We don’t want it to go on either way.

“They don’t want to be responsible for illegal fishing boats, nor do they want to have them in their own waters — they want proper controls.”

Mr Joyce, whose portfolio covers fisheries, said his Indonesian counterpart was famous for her “incredible” determination to stamp out illegal fishing.

“We are looking forward in the future to doing further work, so we can together make sure that all the fishermen in these areas get a fair deal,” Mr Joyce said.

“Otherwise it’s just going to get fished out and other people are going to steal this product that sustains their way of life, sustains their economic income.”

Mr Joyce’s main mission in Jakarta is to win Indonesian agreement to annual quotas and import permits for Australian beef cattle in place of the current, erratic three-monthly system.

He will talk through the issue today with Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman and Trade Minister Thomas Lembong.

Additional reporting Gita Athika