By: Dede August *)
London IMO (International Maritime Organization) Forum on April, 20th 2016, which discussed some maritime issues, was attended by 171 member states of the IMO. As a member of the IMO, Indonesia pays special attention to the problem of illegal fishing. During IMO forum, the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo stated that the use of marine resources was neccesary to improve the welfare of Indonesian. In addition, Indonesia position which is strategic between two oceans has a duty to participate in maintening the safety of shipping, where more than 60 thousand ships pass through Indonesian waters annually.
In the IMO forum, Joko Widodo affirm that Indonesia will continue to improve supervision and will not tolerate the actions of illegal fishing in Indonesian waters. Illegal fishing is seen as acts of violating the sovereignty and sovereign rights, as well as damaging the marine environment in the territorial waters of Indonesia. In addition to following IMO forum, Indonesia also conduct bilateral cooperation with the United Kingdom (UK) in order to strengthen maritime respective countries. Therefore, Indonesia Ministry of Fisheries and Marine conducted a series of cooperation with the UK Ministry of Trade and Investment. The cooperation is in resisting illegal fishing, trading of fishery products, and development of the maritime industry.
Based on the holding of the forum, the world began to pay attention to the role of Indonesia in resisting illegal fishing. In its development, the eradication of illegal fishing in Indonesia continue to be done through a series of unlicensed foreign ships sinking activities in the territorial waters of Indonesia. Moreover, any local fisherman can be a perpetrators of illegal fishing if they do not have a fishing license and their ship will be sunk. Moreover, fishing has been being often done using pieces of trawler nets or other equipment that threatens the survival of marine biota, either by illegal or legal ship. The case study must be special attention for Indonesian government in eradicating illegal fishing and save diversity of marine life.
By promoting the eradication of illegal fishing through the IMO, there will be many benefits perceived by Indonesia, such as the abundance of fish in the Indonesia sea that will have an impact on the economic growth of the people, especially the local fishermen. In addition, by limiting the use of trawl nets, Indonesia sea ecosystem will be maintained continuity. Then, the involvement in the IMO will also increase the image and bargaining position of Indonesia as the world’s maritime axis.
Nevertheless, the President Joko Widodo will not be able to fight by itself, support of various parties is absolutely necessary. The forms of support too many things, one of which is the administrative order, by always including a valid license when fishing. In addition, the problem of security is also a shared responsibility because patrol officer is not possible at any time watched the traffic on the breadth of the waters of Indonesia. Security forces also can be done by the fishermen, by actively reporting any suspicious signs of foreign vessels that were found in the middle of the sea.
*) CIDISS Contributor