Often Violations Occur, KKP Strengthens Supervision In This Region

The KKP fisheries monitoring vessel. BETWEEN/HO KKP/am.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) continues to strengthen the supervision of the Government Fisheries Management Area of the Republic of Indonesia (WPPNRI) 718, which is Zone III of Measurable Fish Fishing (PIT) through synergy with law enforcement officials in South Papua.

Synergy to strengthen supervision is carried out through integrated and coordinated patrols, data and information exchange, integrated use of surveillance modes, as well as handling marine and fisheries violations in a coordinated manner.

Director General of Marine and Fishery Resources Supervision (PSDKP) Adin Nurawaluddin conveyed the importance of synergy in monitoring at sea and handling violations of cases in the marine and fisheries sector to ensure the success of the Blue Economy priority policy. He said, WPP 718 has a very strategic role for Indonesia.

"With abundant natural resources, as well as geographical positions directly adjacent to neighboring countries, the potential for violations is quite large. This is where synergies between law enforcement officers are needed," he said in a press release, Saturday, August 12.

Adin said geographically, the WPPNRI 718 which includes the waters of the Aru Sea, Arafura Sea, and East Timor Sea is directly adjacent to the Australian state to the south, Timor Leste to the west, and Papua New Guinea to the east.

This results in a high potential violation, especially cases of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Moreover, with the stipulation of WPP 718 as a zone 3 of industrial fishing in the quota-based PIT priority program, strong marine surveillance synergies are needed and integrated legal violations are handled as mandated by Law Number 6 of 2023 concerning Job Creation

According to Adin, with the issuance of the Job Creation Law, law enforcement in the marine and fisheries sector has a new paradigm, namely prioritizing the imposition of administrative sanctions compared to the imposition of criminal sanctions.

"We hope that law enforcement officials can have an understanding of perception in handling violations of the law in the marine and fisheries sector," he said.

Until now, Adin said 34 Coordination Forums had been formed at the provincial level, of which Papua Province was the last formed in 2020. Meanwhile, for the Province of South Papua, it was only formed in 2022.

Therefore, he continued, the KKP continues to encourage local governments to be able to form a Coordination Forum for the Handling of Marine and Fisheries Crimes at the Provincial Level through the Governor's Decree to strengthen supervision at WPPNRI 718, which is included in the 3 PIT zone.

This is in line with the direction of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono in the strategy to make the implementation of five Blue Economy priority policies a success.

The five policies include expanding marine conservation areas, measuring quota-based fishing, developing sustainable marine, coastal and land cultivation, monitoring and control coastal areas and small islands, as well as cleaning up plastic waste in the sea through the Fisherman's Participation Movement or the Sea Love Month.