Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Policy Change on Indonesia’s Commercial Fishing Sector

This article analyses Indonesia’s fishing sector, focusing on its geography, capital distribution, labour dynamics and governing policies. Drawing on previously uncollated statistical data and insights from interviews with key informants, it assesses the impact of the Minapolitan and Blue Economy concepts and the Moratorium, Transshipment and Measured Fishing Catch policies, which have governed the sector since 2009. As the article demonstrates, some of these policies have had little impact while others have had quite serious consequences. The Moratorium and Transshipment policies, for example, led to disruptions in foreign investment, displacement among local fishers and layoffs in associated industries such as seafood processing. As the sector continues to grapple with uncertainty, investors and workers alike struggle to adapt amid successive regulatory changes.