WNAM REPORT: The Indonesian Navy (TNI) has commenced the removal of an illegal bamboo sea fence spanning 30.16 kilometers in a coastal area of Tangerang District, Banten, as instructed by President Prabowo Subianto.
“We are here under the order of the president and the TNI AL chief of staff to open access to the sea for fishermen,” Commander of the TNI AL Main Base III Brigadier Gen. Harry Indarto remarked at a navy post in Tangerang on Saturday.
He explained that the removal is based on the fence being declared illegal due to lacking a permit and obstructing local fishermen’s navigation.
Despite the challenges, Indarto noted that his side aims to remove at least two kilometers of the fence each day.
The removal process is complicated by the fact that the bamboo stalks had been anchored to the seabed for months in shallow waters, making it difficult to extract and rendering it implausible for the navy to deploy its main vessels for assistance.
In light of these challenges, the TNI AL opted to dispatch small boats and collaborate with fishermen to manually pull out the fence using ropes attached to the boats.
The naval base commander emphasized that the TNI AL would continue to work hand in hand with the fishermen throughout the removal effort.
On Wednesday (January 15), the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries sealed off the sea fence, the discovery of which startled both the government and the public, as its presence was considered mysterious.
Based on its initial calculations, the Indonesian Ombudsman suggests that this illegal sea fence may have caused losses amounting to Rp9 billion (nearly US$550 thousand) for local fishermen.
During a public discussion on the sea fence in Jakarta earlier this month, the secretary of the ministry’s Directorate General of Marine Area Management, Kusdiantoro, said that the presence of the fence could indicate an illegal practice.
He highlighted the possibility of the fence being used by certain actors to monopolize and privatize the marine area and its resources by restricting public access, which, in turn, could result in economic and environmental losses.
On the same occasion, head of the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Office of Banten province, Eli Susiyanti, said that the bamboo sea fence measures around six meters in height and stretches across 16 sub-districts.
