REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia's sea fishing production is predicted to rise to 7.8 million tons this year from 6.7 million tons last year.

Sea fishing production is expected to rise in 2017 after the government's harsh policy against illegal fishing, Sea Fishing Director General Sjarief Widjaja said here on Tuesday. 

Sjarief said everyday he had data including about fish production from various fish terminals. 

The data also showed that Indonesia has around 2 million fishermen and around 625,000 fishing boats. Around 40,000 units of the boats are more than 30 gross tons (GT) in measure and around 300,000 units are without engines.

"The country's fishery potentials increased after that moratorium on the operation of foreign fishing vessels, massive eradication of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and ban on the use of fishing gears that could damage the environment," he said. 

The policy contributes to increase in fishing production of the country's fishermen in various areas, he said.

He said the Marine and Fishery Ministry (KKP) has set aside Rp467 billion to build 1,068 units of fishing vessel in various sizes from 3 to 120 gross tons (GT).

He said the ships to be built include 449 units of 3-GT, 498 units of 5-GT, 92 units of 10-GT, 3 units of 20-GT, 20 units of 30-GT, and 3 units of 120-GT vessels.

In addition, three units of fish carrier of 100 GT would also be built made of steel, he said.

"This year the approach has to be holistic that we would provide not only ships but also fishing gears, fishing certificates, technology and workshops," he said.

The fishing gears include gill nets in 59 specifications, trammel net in 2 specifications, drift long lines in 3 specifications, bottom long line in 3 specifications, pole and line 1 specification, and hand line in 15 specifications.

Workshops would be built in 20 fishing ports to facilitate fishermen in repairing their ships, Sjarif said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Osman Sapta said the country need to modernize its fishing industry by providing traditional fishermen with modern fishing equipment to increase their productivity.

Osman said Indonesian fishermen are still behind fishermen of neighboring countries in the use of modern technology. Foreign fishermen already use high technology to detect the movements of fishes in the sea, he said. 

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