At the 13th meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Indonesia proposes to add 500 boats to its tuna fishing fleet. The Fishery Ministry’s director general for ocean fisheries Ali Supardan informed that in a bid to increase the country’s tuna production, Indonesia has taken this decision.
It is told that increasing fishing vessels would help Indonesia to get the chance to significantly expand its tuna fishing areas. Vessels registered with the IOTC are permitted to fish outside of their national territorial fishing waters, so long as they remain within the Indian Ocean region covered by the IOTC regulatory framework.
Director of fisheries sources Nilanto Prabowo said that Indonesia was expected to increase its tuna production by 20 percent this year, should the proposal to amend the quota under the IOTC regulations be approved. Central Statistic Agency (BPS) in its record mentioned that Indonesia produced 125,933 tons of tuna in 2008, a slight increase from 121, 316 tons in 2007.
It is said that the proposal to increase boats is part of an Indonesian strategic plan to have a greater say among tuna producers in the commission and to play a greater role in the tuna fishing industry. Data from the Fishery Ministry shows the country’s fishery output reached 8.71 million tons last year, up from 8.24 million tons in 2007. It exported 895,000 tons of fish in 2008, a 4 percent increase from the 854,329 tons it exported in 2007.
