REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia and the United Kingdom have agreed to strengthen cooperation to deal with illegal fishing by developing the national water surveillance satellite technology.
"The cooperation project, which had been in place since 2016, was launched in April 2017," Secretary General of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Rifky Effendi Hardijanto said during a meeting with British Minister of International Trade Liam Fox here on Thursday.
The project, which will cost an estimated 8 million pound sterling, will include the development of international maritime satellite (Inmarsat), Rifky noted.
The project, which will use the vessel monitoring system (VMS), will make Indonesia one of the pioneer countries to use a technology with up-to-date traceability, he stated.
The system will also be combined with various techniques to collect data obtained from radars and surveillances aboard patrol boats and airplanes supervising the territorial waters in several parts of the country, he remarked.
The project is also aimed at ensuring improvement in quality of Indonesian fishery products, thereby supporting the ministry's intention to have a reduction of duties on the export of the country's fishery products to Europe.
On Saturday (April 1), from Morela village, Maluku province, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti commended the sinking of 81 boats caught for illegal fishing in 12 different places in the country
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