Indonesia sinks foreign boats to deter illegal fishing

Hmmm, not a bad approach. Maybe the Japanese Coast Guard could do the same with the Chinese boats the next time they come to the waters around the Ogasawara and Izu islands to illegally poach red coral.

Agreed, but dynamite?

There's better ways to sink them.

Act of war.

gotta side with Indonesia on this. those countries rape there own waters of all life then they think its fine to do the same in others countries waters. A slap on the wrist and being sent home wont stop them. having there boats destroyed will make the financial gains much less than the risk of losing you property.

Authorities also say foreigners illegally fishing in Indonesia are partly responsible for massive damage to the environment due to the widespread use of explosives and cyanide.

Is destroying the boats another way of destroying the environment as well?

The sunken boat will provide home for the ocean's life. But must make sure they emptied the fuel tank first of course.

Why litter the oceans? Surely there's some other way to publicly dispose of them? Preferably at auction, or haul them ashore and convert them to restaurants.

gotta side with Indonesia on this

Actually I think there's been the odd Indonesian vessel caught further South...

But poachers are poachers. So sink them, but with due care to the environment. That's part of the reason these guys are getting their boats confiscated in the first place.

Be kind and take the crew off first though.

I have no problem with this as long fuel/oil & nasty bits are removed first.

Poaching has always been a problem in SE Asia & elsewhere. Seize the boats & send crews back home COLLECT, seems reasonable

The problem of seizing a boat and tugging it back is it hords resources since it's usually the patrol boat that seized the boat tugging it back to port. Losing precious time to patrol further. That was the biggest problem during the Ogasawara inccident.

President Joko Widodo knows that the integrity of their borders are non-negotiable and are making the proper steps to ensure they have de facto control of their seas, not merely de jure, both through tougher implementation of existing laws and a larger and more focused spending on the Navy and Coast Guard. And if that assuring that integrity takes sinking Vietnamese ships, Thai ships, Chinese ships, Taiwanese ships, Filipino ships, Malaysian ships and Singaporean ships, that's totally fine. After all, they were stealing their fish, it's only fair Indonesia gets to blow up their ships.

Lots of boats and ships are deliberately sunk to start artificial reefs which are good feeding and breeding habitat for sea life.

Wish they could do the same to poachers in the illegal wildlife trade...

Breaking laws with minimal or no consequence invites more laws to be broken and higher frequency. I side with Indonesia.