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ndonesia has called for the United Nations and European Commission (EC) to push for stronger law enforcement at the international level against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said Friday during the World Ocean Summit in Bali that IUU fishing was one of the biggest threats to the world’s fish stocks. Therefore, she pushed the UN and EC to classify it as a transnational crime.

“What we see as the problem in the ocean [threatening sustainability] is not only pollution from plastic waste, but also IUU fishing. The world’s commitment to sustainability should also come with strong international law enforcement. We should not let other people destroy what we have preserved.”

“IUU [fishing] should be classified as a transnational organized crime because it basically involves transnational organizations, many companies from different countries. Only international institutions like the UN and EU [European Union] can enforce that. By classifying it as a transnational crime, countries could get assistance from Interpol and UNODC [the UN Office on Drugs and Crime].”

She said an average of 10,000 boats from foreign countries fished illegally in Indonesian waters. “It has happened for decades. It involves high-profile businessmen, party leaders, our department’s people.”

Her extreme measures against illegal boats and red tape had seen significant results, with the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and competitiveness rate for the fisheries industry doubling in just a year, she said.

During 2016, as many as 115 illegal vessels, mostly from Vietnam, were sunk. The ministry also imposed a moratorium on business licenses for fisheries management areas and revised a regulation on the business to protect the country’s oceans from IUU fishing.

The government also established fisheries courts in 10 locations prone to IUU fishing to accelerate legal steps.

Susi also highlighted that economic growth should be balanced with conservation efforts. “There is no growth without keeping sustainability in place.”

Olof Skoog, permanent representative of Sweden to the UN, praised Indonesia’s progress, including in maritime affairs and fisheries. “[Previously] Indonesia was not at all like where it is today. It comes across as a leader in many aspects.”

“We identified there were many things about the ocean that completely went in a wrong direction, and not enough people are doing something about it. What Indonesia has done raises our hopes that it is going in the right direction,” he said.

He called on the world’s citizens to make use of their democratic rights to push their governments to make ambitious commitments to balance sustainability and growth in the “blue economy,” or marine-related economic values and benefits.

Globally, the blue economy generates US$2.5 trillion per year from fishing and aquaculture, shipping, tourism and other activities, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). However, the figures, as well as the food, employment and livelihoods they represent, are not guaranteed without action to ensure the long-term sustainability of the invaluable natural assets, as the oceans are moving deeper into ecological crisis, the WWF said.

In another session on ocean and climate change policy, speakers discussed that bringing the ocean into formal climate change agreements had taken on a new urgency as science begins to unravel the worrying consequences of climate change related impacts on the seas — and as evidence of accelerating climate change impacts on oceans and coasts accumulates.