Sorong, Ekuatorial – After recent confiscation of Vietnamese boat over Misool water areas of raja Ampat, Papua on last Monday, activist on Sunday (25/1) urged government to do more patrols on Indonesia’s eastern water areas in fight for illegal fishing.
Lukas Rumetna, Birds Head Portfolio TNC Raja Ampat said that illegal fishing might occur again considering its vast and open water areas which was difficult to cover if depending only on patrols conducted by local people. “Especially, equipment owned by local people is not sufficient to after big ships such as from Vietnam and the scope is also included in regional sea protection areas,” said Rumetna.
Nevertheless, he said that by confiscating Thanh Cong boat would trigger ‘one’ movement and encourage people, especially law enforcers, to do patrols. In addition, for stricter law enforcement.
Adrian Yusuf Kaiba, head of Regional Water Conservation Area Unit at Raja Ampat Marine and Fisheries Agency said that the confiscation instead was as a result from local people’s patrol which then followed up the police. So, there was a joint effort to protect Raja Ampat water areas which are famous for its marine resources.
“We are still waiting for investigation conducted by civil servants of Marine and Fisheries Agency and police, meanwhile waiting for Minister of Marine and Fisheries’ decision on destroying illegal fishing boats in Indonesia’s waters,” said Kaiba adding that the arrest was done in Panah-Panah strait as the boat was avoiding high tide. Niken Proboretno