Aceng Suryanto, who started his own fishing business after working for just three months on foreign fishing vessels, has a truly exceptional story.
Nine years ago, Aceng was just a regular fisherman living in a fishing settlement in Belawan, near Medan, North Sumatra. But now, thanks to his brief experience as a seafarer, he is the owner of eight fishing boats and employs 10 crewmembers.
I decided to open my own business and become the boss of my own company. Now, I have my own fishing boats and crew, Aceng told The Jakarta Post at the Gabion fishing settlement in Belawan on Wednesday.
Aceng, who is of Chinese descent, claimed he was first offered work catching fish in the Strait of Malacca with foreign fishermen in 2005. He said there were many foreign fishing boats working in the area from various countries including Thailand, Malaysia and China, which often offered good salaries. Aceng joined such vessels for a while but resigned when he could no longer stand their way of working.
I only joined them fishing for three months. The longest period was with Thai fishermen. They worked very hard and were very disciplined, but the payments were uncertain. I couldn’t stand it, said Aceng, 59.
The father of three said his salary depended on the volume of each catch. If the catch was good, Aceng said, he could earn a daily wage of up to US$9. He said all the fishermen on the ship also earned an additional 5 percent from the total catch. However, if the catch was small, they received a lower wage.
Aceng said Thai fishermen liked catching fish in Indonesian waters, especially off Natuna Islands and Batu Putih in Aceh, due to the abundant fish resources there. He added that during his stint with the Thai fishermen, they could haul in between 50 to 100 tons of fish of various kinds in a month.
He said the fish they caught were usually exported to other countries, citing Thai fishing boats that sold their catches, including tuna, pomfret, Spanish mackerel and skipjack, to Europe. Smaller fish were sold to local markets, while a large volume of the skipjack catch was destined for the Thai market.
According to Aceng, foreign fishing boats operating in Indonesian waters are always equipped with advanced fishing gear, so they can reap bigger catches.
Generally, the foreign boats that I used to follow were equipped with satellite and sonar devices to locate fish, said Aceng.
When fishing on such vessels in Indonesian waters, Aceng said he was always worried about being caught by Indonesian authorities because the ships did not necessarily have proper permits from the Indonesian government. The fishing boats he worked on often passed patrol boats in the middle of the sea, but were never intercepted.
Belawan Maritime Resources and Fisheries Supervision Station head Basri said that authorities intercepted foreign vessels poaching fish in Indonesian waters bordering the Malacca Strait almost every year.
So far this year, added Basri, one Thai fishing vessel has been captured in the Malacca Strait. Last year, he said, the number of foreign vessels from Malaysia and Thailand seized by authorities stood at 10.
Basri acknowledged that a number of Indonesian citizens were also detained along with foreign crewmembers and their vessels.
The foreign vessels often hire Indonesians as skippers or crewmembers to deceive patrol officers. This method of operation is often used by foreign fishermen when they poach in Indonesian waters, Basri told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Basri said that foreign fishing vessels often trespassed in waters off Natuna and Aceh to poach fish. He acknowledged his office was often overwhelmed in attempting to oversee such activities due to fleet and personnel limitations.
Actually, we often conduct patrols but our armada and personnel are limited so we are not fully able to prevent fish poaching being carried out by foreign vessels in Indonesian waters, he said.
2014 PT. Niskala Media Tenggara