by Rendi A. Witular Dozens of locally made fishing vessels weighing more than 30 gross tons (GT) are docked idly at a port operated by fishing company PT Bintang Mandiri Bersaudara in North Sulawesi’s Bitung, the country’s biggest cluster of fish-processing plants. One crew member said he had not gone fishing for more than a year now, but was still employed to keep the boat seaworthy. “A lot of my friends have been laid off. I am among the lucky few,” said the crew member. Adjacent to the port is Bintang Mandiri’s cold storage and processing unit, which currently runs at less than 20 percent capacity, down from more than 60 percent before the government declared war on illegal fishing...
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