Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands), which became a new regency in November 2001, has been unable to stop illegal trawling and dynamite fishing that is severely damaging its coral reefs.

Regent K. Abdul Kadir reported the difficulty of curbing the practices to House of Representatives Commission III for agriculture and food affairs and to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries last week.

He alleged that naval personnel backed the illegal practices. "Fishermen in the area have always been threatened, at gunpoint, by Navy personnel who warn them not to report the illegal activity. The fishermen have tried to chase away trawlers that they consider responsible for damaging marine life," he said.

"The local police also find it difficult to catch the suspects as they usually throw away any evidence when the police approach their boats."

Trawling and dynamite fishing have damaged 85 percent of the coral reefs in the area. Reports say outside fishermen are responsible for blowing up reefs and killing many fish. They also take away coral to sell at local and foreign markets.

Illegal sand mining is also rampant and has seen the disappearance of some of the 110 islands in the regency.

A local fisherman, Syahrulloh of Harapan island, said dynamite fishing was not the only reason for local fishermen's dismal catches. "Dynamite fishing has a negative impact on our catches, but outsiders in trawlers operating in our sea also exacerbates our problems. Besides, the use of trawls has become more intensive since the [regency] inauguration," he said.

Syahrulloh said the increasing number of tourist resorts on at least nine big islands, which have become favorite weekend getaways for Jakarta residents, have also affected local fishermen. "We are not allowed to fish in the vicinity of the resorts. The resort management say the sea around their islands is for the benefit of the owners, not locals."

Didin Juneidi of the Thousand Islands Tourism and Resort Association addressed his complaint by saying: "We are rarely involved in conflicts with local fishermen in regard to fishing locations. We are just concerned that if they fish around the (resort) island, they could destroy the beauty of the island, including coral reefs." A meeting between fishermen and resort managements is scheduled for this Friday.

The regency administration has limited human resources to handle fishermen's complaints. "Positions in only nine of the 37 divisions in the administration have been filled. Even though there are around 56,000 officials in the Jakarta administration, most of them have turned down positions here," complained Abdul.

The development of resorts has also been slow due to the city administration requesting resort operators on certain island to set aside 40 percent of the island as a conservation area.

The request has been rejected by the association. "It's difficult to develop a tourist spot on these islands as they lack adequate transportation, and any transportation that is available is very expensive, about Rp 200,000 (US$20) per person for one trip," Didin said.