On January 27, Ambassador Blake hosted an event at @america to showcase efforts to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, highlighting U.S.-Indonesia cooperation on this important shared challenge. Achmad Santosa, the Head of the IUU Task Force, delivered a presentation outlining the Indonesian Government’s efforts to confront this issue. Shinto Nugroho from Google Indonesia spoke about Global Fishing Watch and ways that technology are giving governments and citizen activists new tools to monitor illegal fishing.
Aditya Utama from MDPI, an NGO focused on collecting fish-catch data, discussed ways that enhanced information in the fisheries sector and especially efforts to increase product traceability also are a means of thwarting incentives to engage in IUU fishing. This event capped a four-month Laut Kita (or “Our Ocean”) campaign in which the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta organized ocean-themed public outreach events at @america, covering sea turtle conservation (October), marine biodiversity (November), marine debris (December), and IUU Fishing (January).
