"The new year began with a piece of bad news when it was known that nine Chinese ships have been taken away," the Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Resources Sri Pudjiastuti said at a press conference here on Monday.
The ships, known to be belonging to the Minatama Group of Indonesia were declared as having been taken away on December 30, 2015 by Chinese crew that had come directly from China for this specific purpose.
Susi said the incident first came to be known after an employee of the company, who used to check the condition of the boats everyday at the Pomako port, reported it.
The employee reported the incident to the operation manager of the Minatama Group, who in turn made a written report on January 4 to the police, the KKP working unit as well as the Navys main base in Timika.
The nine ships are KM Kofiau 19, KM Kofiau 15, KM Kofiau 16, KM Kofiau 17, KM Kofiau 18, KM Kofiau 49, KM Ombre 50, KM Ombre 51 and KM Ombre 52.
Based on information provided by the Mantama Group, the ships carried 39 Chinese crew, of whom eight were tasked with taking care of the boats while 31 others had only arrived in Timika on December 22 and 24.
"It is an extraordinary case that reflected an element of insult and disregard for Indonesias sovereignty. Can anyone imagine a Chinese crew entering and making away with the ships as if they are operating in their own country? This is an extraordinary blow to Taskforce 115 (charged with checking illegal fish poaching)," she said.
The minister said he would summon the Chinese embassy official to express her disapproval at such blatant intrusion of the Indonesian territorial sovereignty.
KKP has declared the ships as vessels that broke the laws, including employing foreign crew, carrying dual flags, fishing beyond the permitted area, violating manpower and immigration laws and conducting transhipment at the sea border between Arafura (Indonesia) and Papua New Guinea.
Based on latest Automatic Identification System monitoring by Australias border guards, the missing ships are currently heading towards China along the Philippines side of the South China Sea and would pass the international waters above Biak Island and North Maluku.
"As of now, they are still traveling around the Pacific. Hopefully we should be able to detain them," she said, adding she would ask for help from a number of countries and the wider international community.
The government, through Taskforce 115, she said, will investigate the case thoroughly.
When asked how could such an incident happen, the minister said one reason could be lack of surveillance or neglect, because ordinarily, the ships should have been guarded for all 24 hours in a day.
Susi said she would tighten surveillance on 715 foreign fishing boats, scattered in 26 ports in various regions of the country.
"We would use a mechanism and a method that would make sure that a ship could be stopped from moving, if we want. Technically, it would be determined by the operations director of the Taskforce on checking illegal fishing and PSDKP (fisheries and marine resource surveilance agency)," she said.
She said she would also activate transmitters of all the foreign ships and strengthen synergy and coordination with the PSDKP, the navy and the police.
She said she would de-register any ships found involved in crimes or which are blacklisted and will also increase international cooperation to detect the movement of ships. This will be achieved by coordinating with countries that have modern monitoring satellites, such as Australia, the US and Norway.(WDY)
