Risno Ibrahim, Transshipment: Legal Plunder of the Maluku Sea
Seram Post | 8 Juli 2025
SERAMPOST.COM, JAKARTA – The Maluku Sea is never short of fish. Yet, Maluku's children continue to grow up on the coast with empty stomachs and a bleak future. This irony cannot be explained by economic figures or the rhetoric of sustainable development.
HMI PB functionary and young activist from Maluku, Risno Ibrahim, said that something more cruel was going on: systematic neglect, and the state was the main culprit.
"Transshipment is the most subtle—and most brutal—way the state washes its hands of poverty in Maluku," said Kata Risno, Monday (07/07/2025).
Transshipment, or the transfer of catches at sea, is legally facilitated through a Circular letter from the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Large vessels no longer need to dock at Maluku ports.
The fish are lifted, transferred directly to transport vessels, and transported overseas or to major ports in Java and Sulawesi. There are no land-based transactions, no auctions, no economic cycles along the coast. All that remains in Maluku is the salty smell of the sea and the increasingly exhausted fishermen.
"Transshipment isn't just a technical procedure. It's a political decision. The state has consciously chosen not to develop Maluku," Risno said.
Maluku is truly a national fisheries hub. Three strategic Fisheries Management Areas (WPP)—WPP 714 (Banda Sea), WPP 715 (Seram Sea and Tomini Bay), and WPP 718 (Arafura and Timor Seas)—are located in this region. Their potential reaches nearly 30 percent of the national fish stock. But, Risno said, "The sea is taken, but the economic resources are not returned. This is robbery disguised as regulation."
The central government continues to sing the song of maritime nationalism, but has never been willing to build the foundations of a maritime economy in the east. Modern ports are non-existent, cold storage facilities are non-existent, and fuel depots for fishermen are like a luxury item only seen in campaign promises.
"The country talks about being a global maritime axis, but forgets that this axis revolves around the suffering of Maluku fishermen," said Risno.
He called the transshipment practice a new form of colonialism. In the past, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) arrived with cannons; now, the state comes with circulars. Spices used to be plundered; now, fish and coastal economies are plundered with the blessing of bureaucracy.
Maluku's marine resources are being exploited, but there's no multiplier effect. Zero multiplier effect. Only large fishing corporations and elites in Jakarta, who have no idea where Maluku is on the map, thrive.
Worse yer, small-scale fishermen on the coasts of Ambon, Seram, Aru, and Tual have to buy fuel at two to three times the price because there are no fuel depots for fishermen. They are forced to buy retail, sometimes from second- or third-hand suppliers.
This is insane. In a sea of wealth, the people of Maluku are like stepchildren who only get the dregs," Risno asserted.
He urged an immediate end to the practice of transhipment and its replacement with a regulation requiring all fishing vessels operating in the Maluku region to land their catch at local ports. Risno argued that the state must build comprehensive infrastructure: ports, modern fish processing facilities (TPI), cold storage facilities, fish processing centers, and even fisherman's financing cooperatives.
"We're not begging. We're demanding our rights. Maluku deserves economic justice. Build ports, prepare infrastructure, and stop transhipment. That's a constitutional mandate, not a plea for mercy," he said.
At the end of his statement, Risno challenged the central government to answer one question: "Who is the Maluku Sea for? For the people, or just for large ships and investors?"
The people of Maluku, he said, have been patient for too long. But that patience has now turned into demands. Demands for basic rights that have long been ignored by a state that keeps talking about justice but remains silent as Maluku is systematically emptied. (***)
SERAMPOST.COM, JAKARTA – The Maluku Sea is never short of fish. Yet, Maluku's children continue to grow up on the coast with empty stomachs and a bleak future. This irony cannot be explained by economic figures or the rhetoric of sustainable development.
HMI PB functionary and young activist from Maluku, Risno Ibrahim, said that something more cruel was going on: systematic neglect, and the state was the main culprit.
"Transshipment is the most subtle—and most brutal—way the state washes its hands of poverty in Maluku," said Kata Risno, Monday (07/07/2025).
Transshipment, or the transfer of catches at sea, is legally facilitated through a Circular letter from the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Large vessels no longer need to dock at Maluku ports.
The fish are lifted, transferred directly to transport vessels, and transported overseas or to major ports in Java and Sulawesi. There are no land-based transactions, no auctions, no economic cycles along the coast. All that remains in Maluku is the salty smell of the sea and the increasingly exhausted fishermen.
"Transshipment isn't just a technical procedure. It's a political decision. The state has consciously chosen not to develop Maluku," Risno said.
Maluku is truly a national fisheries hub. Three strategic Fisheries Management Areas (WPP)—WPP 714 (Banda Sea), WPP 715 (Seram Sea and Tomini Bay), and WPP 718 (Arafura and Timor Seas)—are located in this region. Their potential reaches nearly 30 percent of the national fish stock. But, Risno said, "The sea is taken, but the economic resources are not returned. This is robbery disguised as regulation."
The central government continues to sing the song of maritime nationalism, but has never been willing to build the foundations of a maritime economy in the east. Modern ports are non-existent, cold storage facilities are non-existent, and fuel depots for fishermen are like a luxury item only seen in campaign promises.
"The country talks about being a global maritime axis, but forgets that this axis revolves around the suffering of Maluku fishermen," said Risno.
He called the transshipment practice a new form of colonialism. In the past, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) arrived with cannons; now, the state comes with circulars. Spices used to be plundered; now, fish and coastal economies are plundered with the blessing of bureaucracy.
Maluku's marine resources are being exploited, but there's no multiplier effect. Zero multiplier effect. Only large fishing corporations and elites in Jakarta, who have no idea where Maluku is on the map, thrive.
Worse yer, small-scale fishermen on the coasts of Ambon, Seram, Aru, and Tual have to buy fuel at two to three times the price because there are no fuel depots for fishermen. They are forced to buy retail, sometimes from second- or third-hand suppliers.
This is insane. In a sea of wealth, the people of Maluku are like stepchildren who only get the dregs," Risno asserted.
He urged an immediate end to the practice of transhipment and its replacement with a regulation requiring all fishing vessels operating in the Maluku region to land their catch at local ports. Risno argued that the state must build comprehensive infrastructure: ports, modern fish processing facilities (TPI), cold storage facilities, fish processing centers, and even fisherman's financing cooperatives.
"We're not begging. We're demanding our rights. Maluku deserves economic justice. Build ports, prepare infrastructure, and stop transhipment. That's a constitutional mandate, not a plea for mercy," he said.
At the end of his statement, Risno challenged the central government to answer one question: "Who is the Maluku Sea for? For the people, or just for large ships and investors?"
The people of Maluku, he said, have been patient for too long. But that patience has now turned into demands. Demands for basic rights that have long been ignored by a state that keeps talking about justice but remains silent as Maluku is systematically emptied. (***)
