The Pukat Ship Is Suspected Of Having An Illegal Fish Capture Entrepreneur In Riau Islands, Local Resah Fisherman, KKP Asked To Move

Illustration - A traditional fisherman is active in the waters of KAwal, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands. (ANTARA/Nikolas Panama)

KEPRI - Head of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Service of Riau Islands Province (Kepri) Tengku Arif Fadillah suspects that illegal trawlers or trawlers belonging to local entrepreneurs are used to catch fish.

"Information we obtained, the ship belonged to a local businessman. However, we were unable to detect at which port the ship was docked," said Arif in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands, August 28.

The former Secretary of the Riau Islands also admitted that he did not know for sure in which area the ship was operating, except for information obtained from traditional fishermen who felt restless with the ship's activities.

"The name is also illegal activities, secretly so it is difficult to detect. However, we have reported this problem to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP)," he said.

Arif hopes that officers from the Marine and Fisheries Resources Monitoring Base in Batam will handle this problem because in the past month fishermen in Natuna Regency and Bintan Regency have been worried and threatened by the activities of fishermen using the trawler.

The Marine and Fisheries Resources Monitoring Base has a number of ships, complete officers and equipment in handling these problems so that it is hoped that there will be no more activities of trawlers in the waters below 30 miles.

"We remind the owner of the trawler not to carry out illegal activities because the officers traced the case to the owner of the ship," he said.

Arif explained that trawlers can only operate in the waters above 30 miles. If fishing is in the waters below 30 miles, it can be categorized as illegal.

"The activity of the trawler under 30 miles can kill the search for local fishermen. The breeding of fish will be disrupted, because small fish are also caught," he said.

Previously, the Acting Regent of Bintam Roby Kurniawan said his residents who worked as traditional fishermen several times saw tradistrict boats active in a number of areas in Bintan waters.

The problem of trawlers, according to him, is not only for the benefit of today's traditional fishermen, but also in the future. Children in the future will have difficulty getting and consuming fish if fishing is now using trawler trawler trawls.

"We have followed up with the authorities so that this problem can be resolved," he said.