REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Vice President Jusuf Kalla stated that the policy of sinking foreign fishing boats caught for poaching in Indonesian waters has come to an end, and the time has come to think on how to increase export of fish.

To that end, the foreign fishing boats that have been caught can be auctioned or re-used as the country is currently in need of fishing boats, the vice president told the press at his office here on Tuesday.

"It is enough (to stop sinking the illegal fishing boats); now we need to purchase the fishing boats and ships. On the other hand, however, many ships are unused. We have informed the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister that we would need more ships as our export of fish has declined. We should not buy the ships using state budget as many ships are unused, such as those in Bitung, Bali, and Tual," Kalla explained.

According to Kalla, there is no article in the law that requires the captured ship to be burned. Vessels can be auctioned to enable generation of income for the state.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan remarked that in 2018, there will no longer be the sinking of fishing boats because the government wants to focus on the efforts to increase fish production.

In the meantime, Sjarief Widjaja, director general for capture fisheries of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, remarked that a total of 327 foreign fishing boats have been sunken so far for poaching in Indonesian waters.

Since the last two years, the ministry had been concentrating on the country's sovereignty to guard the nation's fish stock that had been depleted because of illegal fishing activities, he revealed in Cirebon, West Java, in October 2017.

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