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N O W R E A D II N G TTooggggllee MMeennuu l 3 5 S 5 SH A R ETHIS TATTOOED INDONESIAN FISHERIES MINISTER WILL BLOW YOUR MIND (AND MAYB…

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An Indonesian Navy officer takes aim at an illegal vessel. Photo: AFP

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HOME BACKGROUND THE HAGUE CASE ANALYSIS VIDEO INTERACTIVE THIS TATTOOED INDONESIAN FISHERIES MINISTER WILL BLOW YOUR MIND (AND MAYBE YOUR BOAT)

Blowing up illegal vessels got ’s fisheries boss noticed; now the net gains of Susi Pudjiastuti’s policy are clear to see W E R E C O M M E N D

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CHINA NEWS Indonesia's Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Photo: Reuters German trade body warns firms may pull out of China over Communist Party Susi Pudjiastuti shows off a copy of an application for a permit submitted one pressure year before she was named Indonesia’s fisheries minister in 2014. Made out to an Indonesian company with an address in Fuzhou, China, it sought permission to SOCIETY operate a vessel capable of hauling in 3,000 tons of fish per voyage. The vessel sugar babies, would have operated a purse seine, a type of circular net used in commercial sugar daddies – but it’s NOT about selling sex, fishing to target dense schools of fish. The nets are controversial because they are these dating websites CinHsINisAt N| ETWhSis Week In so efficient – some vessels run out several kilometres of netting that drops from UAsSi apoliticians break the surface to 650 metres deep, entrapping hundreds of tons of fish at a time. ranks over Donald Trump’s ‘nuts’ trade moves against China

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ASIA Five injured after quake Not on her watch, says the woman known by everyone here as Ibu Susi. “Can you hits , more tremors expected imagine? This will vacuum your fish,” she says.

ASIA North Korea wants As China’s fishermen fan out farther amid collapsing fish stocks, Susi is standing summit with Kim Jong- un and Donald Trump firm. She has limited the size of domestic fishing vessels and entirely sealed off in capital Pyongyang, CNN reports Indonesia’s nearly 6 million square kilometres of ocean territory from foreign CHINA NEWS Chinese firm raises fishing vessels. In a stark warning to poachers she has detonated and sunk eyebrows with US$25 million staff bonus … foreign fishing boats in front of news cameras. So far, 363 boats, operating in the paid in cash country illegally, have been scrubbed of their parts, nets and fuel and sent to the CHINA NEWS Sheraton hotel bottom of the sea. The hardline approach has earned her death threats as fishing manager says sorry industries in neighbouring countries have lost out on billions of dollars in lost after naked Chinese guests get catches of species. embarrassing visit SOCIETY How the Tokyo 2020 Games are killing Still, Susi says she doesn’t discriminate. She resents all foreign fishing boats rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia | This equally. “I am not anti-China. If it’s any other country I will do the same thing. I Week In Asia ASIA wouldn’t be successful doing this combat if I discriminated.” Who is Zakir Naik? Muslim preacher faces hate charges in India, but is welcome in p Malaysia Could anti-Chinese violence flare again in Indonesia? CHINA NEWS Creative Chinese property owner fails to As proof of her results Susi rattles off numbers that for months have formed the save his wonky house from demolition backbone of a PowerPoint presentation she has trotted out to journalists, conservationists and government counterparts.

S E E A L S O The estimated sustainable catch has doubled to 12.5 million tons over the past The Unusual Link four years. Exports for items such as shrimp have surged by more than a third to Between Eggs And Diabetes countries such as Thailand. Exports of all fisheries products to Thailand have HEALTHNEWSTIPS.TODAY ballooned nine fold. “Now they don’t steal our fish,” Susi says of Thailand’s fish Sites culturels emblématiques de 5 processing industry. “They have to pay for it.” arrondissements de NVISeITw T HYEo UrkSA

Expats are Transferring The turnaround has stopped a slide in the number of households that make a Their Pensions to Avoid Losing 50% of Their living from the sea. Between 2003 and 2013 that number had halved to 800,000. MFOoRTnHe CyAPITAL What Lies Ahead for the Robotics Revolution? CERAWEEK ON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Indonesian fishermen using sustainable methods. Photo: AFP

Asian insights and analysis direct to your inbox. All this feeds an extra US$20 billion into the country’s GDP every year, Susi says, your email address SIGN UP while enforcing the crackdown costs no more than US$10 million. By registering to our newsletter you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy

“We only blew up a few boats for show,” Susi admits. “Now we just drill holes in the bottom.”

Meanwhile, fishermen haul in bigger and better catches closer to shore. That saves time and fuel. Boats based at her hometown of Pangandaran, on the south shore of , haul in red snapper weighing about 8kg when 2kg was the norm not long ago.

Susi flips open a laptop and shows off some video taken from Kaimana in West of a woman hoisting a tuna into an open wooden fishing boat. She lights a cigarette and laughs. “I feel really good when I see this. I travel a lot and I listen to what people say.”

A Cessna aircraft at Jayapura airport in Papua province. Photo: AFP

The tattooed, straight talking Susi was an overnight sensation when she was handed the fisheries portfolio soon after President swept to power in 2014. Founder of PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Products and charter airline Susi Air, which services some of the country’s far flung islands, she embodies Widodo’s vision of a cabinet filled with entrepreneurs rather than political hacks. Her hawkish stance on asserting sovereignty dovetailed with Widodo’s promises of returning the country to its maritime roots. The government quickly banned fishing by foreign vessels and put limits on the size of ships that may operate in Indonesia’s waters, moving to promote investment in fish processing plants. End of the road for Indonesia’s motorbikes? p

The approach brought Susi plaudits. Last year the WWF gave her the Leaders for a Living Planet award. Activists credit her for highlighting the plight of fisheries. “When it comes to fisheries, Indonesia is now cool in the eyes of the world,” says Susan Herawati, the secretary general of KIARA, a non-profit agency promoting the issues of the industry.

A catch of tuna is trans-shipped from an illegal, unregistered and unlicensed purse seine fishing vessel onto a reefer, or cold storage vessel in waters close to the border of Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone. Photo: AFP

Even so, implementation in a country as vast as Indonesia and in places still profoundly corrupt is sketchy. Indonesian boats will often fish on behalf of Asian clients and simply transfer their catch to bigger factory ships just outside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, which usually extends 200 nautical miles from shore. “There are fewer foreign fishing boats now,” Herawati says. “It’s cool to bomb ships, but the big bosses [outside Indonesia] are still safe and have not been made to pay for our losses.”

Still, Indonesia’s experience is at odds with other emerging economies. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says 90 per cent of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited or facing collapse. China’s government doles out billions in subsidies to underwrite bigger ships that can scour far-off fishing grounds. That has led to conflict. This year Argentina sank a Chinese vessel. Last year, Indonesia accused China’s coastguard of interfering in the seizure of Chinese vessels in waters around Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, which abut an area claimed by China as traditional fishing grounds.

Would moving Indonesia’s capital work? p Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Photo: AFP

The clash tests Indonesia’s relationship with China. Indonesia maintains it has no claims on portions of the South China Sea claimed by China. Even so, Susi supports Indonesia’s move earlier this year to rename the waters around the Natunas as the North Natuna Sea. At present the waters are part of the South China Sea – Beijing has dismissed the move as meaningless. “I have called for that since I took over as minister,” says Susi, who insists the name is for convenience and not an escalation in the turf war. “Why should [China] be so sensitive? What is claimed or unclaimed, that is not my portfolio. I care only about the sovereignty of Indonesian fish stocks. What other countries call the ocean above our [exclusive economic zone] is not my business.” R E L A T E D A R T I C L E S As Widodo prepares for re-election in 2019, Susi worries the changes she has made may be reversed by a less crusading minister. The foreign fishing ban, for example, is a presidential decree. Susi wants the protections enshrined in law. What’s behind Beijing’s Beijing and Hanoi CouTldh aa Cth minaa-y be a uCsheifnua’ls b 4a0-cvkessteol pdr. iSllo Wfahra tt’sh bee hreinsdt Briecijtiniog’ns sB heiajinvge a nndo Ht alenodi to a South China Sea moves promise to keep the Philippine joint to boost war capabilitiesSouth China Sea moves promise to keep the peace in South China devemloepamnenint dgefaul lb iencr‘epoasseed inno tfhorreeati’g in inv–e asntdm wehny tU iSn p afitrsohls propceaecses iinn Sgo uptlha Cnhtinsa – a sign, she Sea, where Vietnam has the way forward in the disputed South China are making things Sea, where Vietnam has emerged as most vocal Soustha yCshi,n tah Saeta ?foreignSe faishing bosses arwe obrside ing their timee umnertgile dS uass mi mosto vvoecasl on. “I’m claimant happy with our result. By having power and authoritycl ayimouan ct an do great good for • • • • 1234the nation,” says Susi. “But I’m worried what will happen when I’m gone.” ■

Additional reporting by Imam Shofwan

Jeffrey Hutton

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