Over-Fishing Industrially - My First Hand Indonesia Experience

Sustainability and Nature

Southeast Asia has one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world, but over-fishing and destructive fishing threaten its sustained existence. 

And I got trapped in a maze as a result!

How it happened

Recently I was sailing my boat from Indonesia to Australia. At that time of year, the cyclone season is drawing to a close and the weather window I had was favourable, although the winds of the northwest monsoon were not in evidence. So it was hours of tedious motoring and hand-steering - this was a solo trip and the autopilot was out of action.

I ate my quick sandwich lunch and shut my eyes for half an hour - engine off and the boat drifting while I caught up on a little sleep. I'd checked the AIS (Automatic Identification System) and radar and had a look round the horizon. There were a few fishing boats ten miles away, moving slowly in circles. Nothing to worry about. I shut my eyes.

Half an hour later I woke up and was trapped in a maze.

A maze of fishing nets, laid in lines up to 10 miles long and too dangerous to cross, for fear of snagging my rudder or propeller.

Getting out

It took hours to work my way out of the maze of nets, late at night and in to the early morning.

And then I was caught again, three days/nights in a row.

I finally figured out that they laid their nets south to north in the afternoon and retrieved them after dawn the next morning.

Thanks.

I was low on fuel because there hadn't been much wind to sail with and the voyage was over 700 miles - I had fuel for about 400 of those and I'd already used almost half of that. And I was wasting precious fuel on long detours through the mazes.

At night the clouds were lit up by all the activity of the fishing boats, all around me. I was tired and becoming increasingly frustrated.

The nets were up to 10 miles long. Sometimes the end buoys on a net have a light, but not always. Most of the buoys have AIS transmitters.

The gaps were a couple of miles wide. The distances between the buoys within a given net were typically 1–2 miles.

By checking the AIS id's of the vessels I was able to locate gaps in the nets between one vessel's netstring and another, then head for the gap.

I'd get through the gap between the nets by maybe 02:00 hours.

Fortunately the weather was benign.

And then?

One evening just before sundown when I thought I was clear of all nets and fishing vessels I noticed what looked like a polystyrene box, maybe 1/2 meter cube. There was no flag or topmark. It was just off the port bow, maybe 100 metres ahead and my boat was moving at about 3.5 knots, conserving fuel.

I grabbed the wheel and swung the boat to starboard, away from the box.

And then the box started to move. And follow me…

It swung across the stern of my boat, maybe 30 metres away.

And then I saw the rope in the clear water, stretched tight around the front of my keel and leading back to the float - box - yes definitely a net buoy.

By now buoy was about 50 meters astern and making waves as it followed me.

Shit! I was snagged. I knocked the engine out of drive and the boat slowly stopped.

The line disappeared and the box stopped. 

Free!

I still don't know where the actual net was, or how deep they lay the nets - the water in the Timor Sea is shallow, generally 40–80 metres deep.

This one had no AIS marker or light and there were no others that I could see.

A brown trouser moment for sure.

And how many others did I miss?

Was it legal fishing?

This is what my research assistant (guess who?) told me:

The extent of the legal commercial fishing boundary in Indonesia is defined by the country's archipelagic baselines, which were established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to these baselines, Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covers an area of approximately 2.7 million square kilometers and extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the country's coastlines. Within this EEZ, Indonesia has sovereign rights over the exploration and exploitation of all living and non-living resources, including fisheries.

In addition to its EEZ, Indonesia also claims a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from its baselines, where it exercises full sovereignty over all activities, including fishing. However, there are certain areas where Indonesia has established fishing agreements with neighboring countries, such as the Joint Fisheries Patrol Area (JFPA) with the Philippines and the Maritime Delimitation Treaty with Australia, which modify the extent of its fishing boundary in those regions.

So, yes, I guess it was legal, provided those fishing vessels were licensed to fish there.

And although the fishing is supposedly controlled, these are international waters.

So who's fishing there?

My AIS system provides me with the details of the vessels that it 'sees'. The data is provided by those own vessels' AIS (and the the AIS transponders on the net markers). And of course the data could be falsified.

These are the countries whose fishing vessels I saw on AIS:

• Indonesia
• China
• Bahrain
• Saudi Arabia
• Sri Lanka
• Taiwan

Some of them were obviously a long way from home.

Fishing legally?

Indonesia's net fishing activities in the Timor Sea have been a source of tension with Australia in the past, as Australian authorities have accused Indonesian fishing vessels of illegally fishing in Australian waters. As a result, the two countries have engaged in discussions and negotiations to establish fishing agreements and resolve fishing disputes in the region.

In 2006, the two countries signed the Australia-Indonesia Fisheries Cooperation Agreement, which aimed to promote sustainable fisheries management in the region and address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities. Under this agreement, Indonesia is allowed to conduct fishing activities in a designated zone of the Timor Sea, while Australian authorities monitor and enforce fishing regulations in the area.

However, despite these efforts, illegal fishing activities continue to be a challenge in the Timor Sea. Both countries have stepped up their efforts to combat illegal fishing through increased patrols and surveillance, as well as collaboration with other countries in the region.

I certainly didn't see a patrol boat.

It was fishing on an industrial scale, but was it legal?

All I can say is that many of the AIS data feeds I saw did not have the flag of origin shown. So I guess some were legal and some not.

A day later I crossed into Australian waters and didn't see another fishing boat, although the sky to the north - in Indonesian waters - was lit up like a city sky at night.

A bit about AIS

Class B AIS has a range of about 5–10 miles only. These fishing vessels were carrying Class B transponders (as I do). So I had little chance of avoiding the nets in good time. By the time I saw them I had a 5–10 mile detour to deal with.

Plenty of fish

The Timor Sea is a rich fishing ground that is home to a huge variety of species, including tuna, mackerel, and barramundi, among others. Yes, there's millions of tons of fish there, and I saw plenty.

 I even had a pod of pilot whales rub up against my boat. Maybe they liked the good vibrations.

And yes, I know, pilot whales are mammals, not fish.

Sources:

Author's experience, plus…

https://www.iisd.org/gsi/news-events/government-support-marine-fisheries-indonesia-should-be-assessed-minimize-risk

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James Marinero's novels are available at his Gumroad bookstore. Also at Amazon and Apple