Fishing by hook or crook causing international confrontations

Last week, Indonesia sank two more, both from Papua New Guinea, and the government says it plans to sink more captured vessels.

Jakarta's crackdown, which includes setting up a fish theft eradication force, is a long delayed response to years of illegal fishing in its waters. Around 5,000 vessels – mostly from Thailand, Vietnam, China, Malaysia and the Philippines – fish illegally in Indonesian waters. The Indonesian government says this causes annual losses of more than US$20 billion (Bt656.6 billion).

Globally, competition for dwindling fish stocks is intensifying, and so is the potential for flash points at sea, analysts say.

The global fish catch is smaller today than it was in the 1990s, and various studies show that stocks of major commercial species have plunged. A 2013 paper by University of British Columbia researchers concluded that about 58 per cent of the world's fish stocks have collapsed or are over-exploited.

Soon after the sinking of the Vietnamese trawlers on December 5, off the remote Anambas Islands in the South China Sea, the authorities arrested crews of 22 Chinese vessels for fishing illegally, according to reports. None of the Chinese ships has been sunk yet.

The two trawlers flying Papua New Guinea flags were sunk last week in Ambon Bay in the eastern Maluku islands. Tempo magazine said the vessels had 72 Thai and Cambodian crew members as well as seven Indonesians on board.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s “shock therapy” has had an immediate effect.

 

Thai ships seized

The day after two Thai ships were chased and seized among the Riau islands, less than a week after the Vietnamese trawlers were sunk, Praporn Ekuru, chairman of the Songkhla Fisheries Association in southern Thailand, warned Thai trawlers to avoid Indonesian waters.

But he added: “Fishermen have to survive. We have to admit that there are almost no fish left in Thailand. Sometimes, they have to take the risk.”

Ironically, a few days earlier on November 29, Thai navy patrol ships had arrested 54 Vietnamese fishermen and seized seven boats found operating illegally off the Thai island of Koh Juang.

Across the region, from China to Vietnam to Pakistan, at any given moment, there are likely to be fishermen from neighbouring countries in jail.

Last Wednesday, India's Tamil Nadu state released 30 Sri Lankan fishermen, a day after Sri Lanka released 66 Indian fishermen arrested by its navy.

More than 800 Indian boats and 348 fishermen are currently in Pakistani custody, while India has 118 Pakistani boats and 136 fishermen in custody.

The reality is that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is rampant around the world and has had a devastating impact, according to the 2014 world fisheries report of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

Fishing has become more efficient, with satellite, Global Positioning System and sonar tracking enabling fishing boats to find large stocks of fish. Fishing fleets straddle the globe: boats from Japan fish as far as Argentina, Korean vessels reach the shores of Patagonia, while the Spanish fish in the Barents Sea off icy northern Scandinavia.

IUU fishing may account for as much as one-fifth of the global catch. Financial losses to countries whose stocks have been plundered reach tens of billions of dollars.

The FAO’s 2014 fisheries report shows that global marine fisheries production expanded to a peak of 86.4 million tonnes in 1996, but has since generally declined, albeit with fluctuations. Global recorded production was 82.6 million tonnes in 2011, and 79.7 million tonnes in 2012.

Part of the decline has been compensated for by the rise of aquaculture. Farmed fish production in 2012 reached 66.6 million tonnes, out of the total global fish catch of 158 million tonnes.

China, in particular, has seen significant growth in aquaculture, which has helped meet the increased demand for fish consumption. Aquaculture has, to a significant degree, helped take pressure off wild-capture fisheries.

“But there are almost no agreements in place to conserve fish stocks in the region, so fishing boats are going out farther and farther, and into other countries' waters.

“Everyone fishes in other people's waters. Incidents involving fishing boats and patrol vessels or warships could spark a military or diplomatic crisis,” he said.

Incidents at sea involving fishing vessels have already triggered tension.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s tactics are a harbinger of things to come, said Wietse van der Werf, Amsterdam-based founder of The Black Fish.

“The reality is that illegal fishing is becoming a major food security issue. In future, access to fishing grounds and fishing stocks will be a bigger cause of conflict and confrontation. We are increasingly seeing this around Europe,” he said.