T

he Riau Islands Police water division have seized four Vietnamese fishing boats in Natuna waters as a result of increasingly strict surveillance in the country’s fishing zones.

The seizure of the trawlers came after multiple Chinese boats were caught in waters that are included in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Following the seizure of one of the 12 Chinese trawlers caught operating illegally by the Indonesian Navy, the police deployed two large patrol boats as reinforcement, which resulted in the seizure of the Vietnamese boats.

Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Sambudi Gusdian said on Friday that the Vietnamese boats were seized on Sunday. The police patrol boat sailed for four days from Natuna to Batam to deliver the poachers’ vessels to authorities.

“The four boats were discovered as they were about to begin fishing. To trick officials, they had been using an Indonesian flag,” said Sambudi.

He said the seizure was proof that Chinese boats were not the only target of the operation.

“Natuna waters were frequently visited by the Chinese and Vietnam fishing boats in the past,” said Sambudi.

The four Vietnamese boats are identified as KM BV 5162 TS with a 70 gross ton (GT) capacity, KM BV 4557 TS 20GT, KM BV 92639 TS with a 100 GT capacity and KM BV C459 TS with a 70 GT capacity. Thirty crew members, including the captains of each vessel, were detained along with the four boats.

The police also seized 20 tons of various species of fish.

Nguyen Van Tien, the captain of KM BV 5162 TS, in his dialogue with Riau Islands’ water police director Sr. Comr. Teddy Jhon Sahala Marbun confessed that they were ordered by the ship owners to use Indonesian flags to avoid raids.

The boat crew members are accused of violating the Fisheries Law with a maximum penalty of six years and Rp 20 billion (US$2.5 million) +in fines. “We brought the crew members to Batam because Natuna is already full of other foreign poachers,” said Teddy.

Tension has simmered between Jakarta and Beijing following the arrest of three Chinese fishing boats in Natuna waters in the past two months.

Jakarta has said the arrests were in accordance with standard law enforcement procedure, while Beijing claims that the part of Natuna that directly links to the South China Sea is part of its fishing grounds and as such the boats did nothing illegal.

Indonesia does not recognize the territorial claims of any other country inside its EEZ. Jakarta also has announced that it would sink another 30 foreign trawlers next month to prove its commitment to upholding the law across its vast waters.

The sinking policy comes as a consequence of stricter patrols by Indonesian authorities, especially in border areas.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said the Indonesian government was conveying a strong message to poachers from neighboring countries to respect Indonesian sovereignty and stop stealing fish from Indonesian waters, especially in the waters around Natuna that are directly linked to the South China Sea.

“Thieves are thieves. We don’t care from which country they come. We will arrest them if we find them stealing fish in our waters, especially in our EEZ,” Susi said.

The sinking of the boats will take place in a number of places across the country, including Sulawesi, North Maluku, Batam, Kalimantan and Riau.

Of the 30 boats that will be sunk in July, 16 have been declared guilty of poaching, while the other 14 are in the final stage of the legal process.

The 16 ships include one from China, one from Vietnam, six from Malaysia and eight from the Philippines. The ministry has yet to reveal the identities of the other 14 ships because of ongoing legal processes.

The government destroyed a total of 176 foreign illegal fishing vessels arrested across Indonesia between October 2014 and April 2016, including 63 from Vietnam, 43 from the Philippines, 21 from Thailand, two from Papua New Guinea, one from Belize and one from China.

Fifty-seven of the foreign vessels were arrested in the natural resource-rich Natuna waters. The remainder were caught in Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.