Promoting Responsible Fishing Practices a Regional Issue With Regional Solutions

Today in Jakarta, Indonesian Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Freddy Numberi and the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Bill Farmer opened a regional meeting “Promoting Responsible Fishing Practices in the Region”. A joint initiative of the Indonesian and Australian governments, the meeting with representatives from 13 countries will discuss a regional plan of action in Promoting Responsible Fishing Practices.

Speaking at the conference, Minister Numberi said,” responsible fishing practices are essential for securing sustainable fish stocks that may continue to be harvested well into the future. Much of the illegal fishing is done by international crime syndicates and not by traditional fishermen, this means that those criminals are stealing from the many small communities on our coastlines that depend on fish for their livelihood”

The meeting will discuss ways that fisheries management can be applied and supported by transparent and scientifically-based management decisions. Over fishing places unsustainable pressures on the health of fish stocks and illegal fishing is increasingly accepted as one of the main obstacles to the achievement of sustainable world fisheries as it undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks.
“Australia and Indonesia have been working together to solve this problem along our common maritime border and there are areas of success which may provide a good model for regional cooperation. I congratulate the Indonesian government for hosting this timely meeting today so that options can be explored which will have a positive impact on fish stocks in the region”, Ambassador Farmer said.

To this end, the meeting will focus on priority areas of action to promote greater cooperation within the region on Promoting Responsible Fishing Practices in the Region including:

an assessment of the health of fish stocks and the scope of over fishing and illegal fishing in the region;
an assessment of the priority areas for capacity building and knowledge exchange in the region;
development and implementation of a regional monitoring, control and surveillance network to facilitate data exchange and information sharing;
development of a regional forum to facilitate the consideration of best practices measures to reduce fishing over capacity, combat illegal fishing and to continue to promote responsible fishing practices.

The Senior Officials meeting is a precursor to the regional Ministerial meeting scheduled next year. The genesis of these regional meetings came from the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum held in June this year in Bali where Ministers agreed that Australia and Indonesia would co-host a regional Ministerial meeting to discuss the problems of illegal fishing.

Today’s meeting were attended by officials from Australia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Timor Leste, People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam.

Further information:
Elizabeth O’Neill (Counsellor Public Affairs) HP. 0811 194 144