•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Banda Aceh. Acehnese fishermen are calling on local authorities to crack down Thai trawlers suspected of poaching in Indonesian waters in the Malacca Strait over the last month.

“The trawlers often operate at night. Sometimes they fish only a few miles from the shore when traditional fishermen are not at work, particularly on Fridays and over the Idul Fitri holiday,” said Adli Abdullah, secretary of Panglima Laot, a group of traditional fishermen, in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Friday.

Traditional fishermen from Aceh don’t usually fish on Friday, when they dedicate the bulk of their day to prayer in mosques, a requirement of Islamic practice.

Adli also urged authorities to go after trawlers from neighboring North Sumatra who have been encroaching in waters off of the Aceh Tamiang subdistrict on the Strait of Malacca.

“So far security officials have done nothing” to chase the Thai and North Sumatra trawlers away, said Adli, adding that their efforts did not only impinge on the territory of traditional fishermen but also significantly hampered their income.

“The Navy should take immediate action. Don’t just discipline local fishermen. Act immediately before traditional fishermen take measures of their own,” Adli told the Jakarta Globe.

“But it’s very odd that the Navy has done nothing, despite multiple reports by Panglima Laot from the eastern coast of Aceh,” he said.

“The most important issue here is law enforcement for violating state borders, destruction of marine life, and wiping out all the fish fry,” Adli said.

He said trawling, which involves dragging a large net along the ocean floor, was destructive to marine ecosystems, violated a 2004 law, and flies in the face of traditional Acehnese fishing methods that have been handed down from previous generations.

Fadli Aziz of the Idi Cut office of Panglima Laot in the East Aceh district said in a telephone interview that the Thai trawlers have been poaching fish from the waters of Idi Rayeuk, Idi Cut, Peureulak and Binjai.

“At night they get as close as 15 miles Aceh’s coast. Their purse-seine nets damage coral reefs and threaten marine ecosystems to extinction,” he said, adding that his agency had obtained a number of photos of trawlers stealing fish in Aceh’s waters.

He said Indonesian trawlers have also been known to catch fish along the eastern coast of Aceh. “According to the Aceh marine tribal law, such action is prohibited because it is destructive for marine ecosystems,” he said.

Fadli said the Navy had conducted patrols in the area, “but once the trawlers pick up Navy vessels on their radar, they flee to international waters.”

He said traditional fishermen are not able to compete with the trawlers because they rely on fishing rods. “After the trawlers loot the area, there’s no fish left for the traditional fishermen. Sometimes their fishing lines are broken by the purse-seine net,” Fadli said, adding that he hoped authorities would take more serious action against poachers.