Legal Protection of East Coast Fishermen of North Sumatera against

Water Pollution Accident of Tanker Ship in Malacca Strait

Suhaidi¹ , Sutiarnoto

, and Syaiful Azam

Lecturer of Faculty of Law, Universitas Sumatera Utara, , Jl Universitas No 4 Kampus USU Medan, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Marine Environment, Legal Protection of Fishermen, Indemnification of Pollution.

Abstract: Marine environment is is also a means of connecting, recreational media, and so forth, because it is essential

to protect the marine environmentThe formulation of the issues to be raised in this research is: How is the

regulation and policy of North Sumatera Province, Medan City and Serdang Bedagai Regency about the

compensation fund for marine environment contamination from oil spill from Tanker ship in Malacca Strait;

and What are the Challenges and Obstacles of North Sumatera Provincial Government, Medan City and

Serdang Bedagai Regency in providing legal protection for East Coast fishermen related to compensation for

pollution of marine environment originating from oil spill from Tanker ship in Malacca Strait. The research

method used is in the form of Descriptive Analytical through empirical research approach by using the

interview as the research instrument. The results obtained are the Legal Protection Protection of the Province

of North Sumatra, especially Medan City, and Serdang Bedagai Regency still refers to the Indonesian National

Arrangement, among others, Presidential Decree No. RI. 18 of 1978, Law No. 17 of 1985, Law No. 32 of

2014, Law No. 7 of 2016 and other relevant national legislation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Protection of the marine environment of Indonesia

from the contamination sourced from the vessel in

Indonesia is now essential because the marine

environment of Indonesia is highly polluted, the

existence of international shipping rights through

Indonesian waters. (Harald, 1994) (Legal

arrangements between marine regimes on pollution

are unclear, and law enforcement related to

coordination among agencies in handling cases of

marine environment pollution. The marine

environment is a source of natural wealth, is also a

means of connecting, recreational media, etc.,

because it is essential to protect the marine

environment, such as marine environmental

protection from pollution sourced from the ship, this

is done so that the utilization of wealth resources can

be enjoyed sustainably. (Kusumaatmadja,1992)

Since November 16, 1994, the 1982 Sea Law

Convention (United Nations Convention on the Law

of the Sea 1982) has been effectively entered into

force. The enactment of conventions affecting the

total area of Indonesia increased to 8,193,163 km²,

consisting of 2,027,087 km² of land and 6,166,163

km2 of ocean. Indonesia's marine sector can be

detailed into 0.3 million km² territorial seas, 2.8

million km² of archipelago waters, and 2.7 km² of

Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

(http://www.imo.org/ imo/ convent/ pollute) Efforts

to prevent the occurrence of pollution of the marine

environment have been conducted by the

international community, in this case IMO through

various initiatives, including making international

provisions, for example by making regulations on the

prevention of marine pollution to the requirements on

the prevention of contamination of the marine

environment in the presence responsibility of liability

compensation (Romimoharto. 1990) Based on the

records of several studies on the marine environment,

sea pollution cases in Indonesia due to collisions or

shipments of tankers began to occur since 1967 but

only received serious attention from the Indonesian

government since the accident of the tanker Showa

Maru in 1975 in the Strait of Malacca. In the case of

the Showa Maru case, the marine environment of

Indonesia experiences pollution or damage which

results in losses not only withimin the marine

1312

Suhaidi, ., Sutiarnoto, . and Azam, S.

Legal Protection of East Coast Fishermen of North Sumatera against Water Pollution Accident of Tanker Ship in Malacca Strait.

DOI: 10.5220/0010072413121315

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1312-1315

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

Table 1: Accident event of a Tanker ship in the Malacca Strait.

No. YearIncident Ship Estimated Oil Spill

1 1967 Tokyo Maru ship collided Not known

2 1971 Tanker Arabian and Eugenic S. Niarcos Not known

3 1975 Showu Maru 730,000 tons

4 1975 Tola Sela 60 tons

5 1976 Diego Silang 5,500 tons

6 1976 Mysella 2000 tons

7 1976 Cita Di Savonna 1000 tons

8 1977 Asian 60 tons

9 1978 Tanker US 1 million gallons

10 1979 Tanker Liberia 3 million gallons

11 1980 Five 700 tons

12 1981 MT Ocean Treasure 1050 tons

13 1983 Tanker Greek Tanker Monenvasia 1.2 million gallons

14 1986 Bright Duke / MV No Data

15 1987 MV Stolt Adv 2000 tons

16 1987 Elhani Platform 2329 tons

17 1988 Bahama Century Down 3.1 million gallons

18 1988 Golar Lie No Data

19 1992 US Hunter Ship and Trade Ship Not known

20 1992 Royal Pacific Yacht Cruises and Fishing Vessels Not known

21 1992 Nagasaki Spirit and Ocean Blessing 2,000 tons

22 1993 Maesk Navigator and Sengko Honor Ship 250,000

23 1997 Super Tangker and Cargo Ships Fishermen Not known

24 1997 Evoikos / Ordin Global 25,000 tons

25 1997 An tai 237 tons

26 2000 M.T. Natuna Sea 4,000 tons

27 2017 Wan Hai 301 Tanger (Singapore) and APL

Denver (Gibaltar)

300 tons

28 2017 US Mc Cain's warship collided with Tanker

Alnic's flagged MC Liberia

environment but also impacts on the life of fishers.

Furthermore, from 1967 until 2017, there have been

28 tanker crashes. In the year 2017 occurred two

times collision tanker as in the following table.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research method used is Descriptive Analytical form

through empirical research approach by using

interviews as the research instrument. The

interviewees were fishermen association throughout

Indonesia, North Sumatera Province, North Sumatera

Provincial Agency of Marine Affairs and Fisheries,

the government of Kuala Lama village of Serdang

Bedagai Regency, Bagan Deli village administration,

and fisherman of Kuala Lama village of Serdang

Bedagai Regency.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

North Sumatra Province lies in the geographic

coastline between 1-4 North Latitude and 98-100 East

Longitude; The province is adjacent to the territory of

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) in the north while

West Sumatra Province and Riau Province border the

west. The west coast of North Sumatra directly faces

the Indian Ocean, while the east coast faces directly

with the Malacca Strait. The east coast of North

Sumatra consists of 7 districts, namely Regency of

Langkat, Medan City, Tanjung Balai City, Asahan

Regency, Labuhan Batu Regency, Deli Serdang

Regency and Serdang Bedagai Regency. The total

area of coastal sub-districts in the eastern part of

North Sumatra is 43,133.44 km2, consisting of 35

coastal sub-districts

Legal Protection of East Coast Fishermen of North Sumatera against Water Pollution Accident of Tanker Ship in Malacca Strait

1313

with a total of 436 villages (nasional.kontan.co.id).

On the east coast of North Sumatra, there are only six

small islands. The eastern coast of North Sumatra is

facing the Malacca Straits, so the potential for

pollution of the marine environment becomes more

significant than the west coast of North Sumatera.

The regulation and policy of the Provincial

Government of North Sumatra in respect of the

pollution of the marine environment originating from

the tanker on the Malacca Strait in line with the

national arrangements of the State of Indonesia.

Indonesia ratified the Convention on Marine Law in

1982 with Law no. 17, 1985. Furthermore,

International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil

PollutionDamage, 1969 (CLC 1969) through

Presidential Decree Republic Indonesia 18 of 1978

and International Convention on the Establishment of

International Fund for Compensation of Oil Pollution

Damage, 1971 (Fund Convention 1971) with

Presidential Decree No. RI. 19 of 1978. However,

Presidential Decree no. 19, 1978 has been revoked

through Presidential Decree No. 41 of 1998 because

the membership of the Government of Indonesia in

the Fund Convention1971 has been burdened with a

heavy contribution to the State budget. So that

membership in CLC 1969 through Presidential

Decree (Keppres) RI No. 18 of 1978 has been deemed

sufficient to be able to provide a guarantee of

compensation funds for pollution of the marine

environment originating from oil spills from ships

including the tanker. (disperindag.sumutprov.go.id).

Another exciting development in marine environment

protection in Indonesia is the issuance of Law NO.32

of 2014 on Regional Government. The law indicates

the existence of provincial authority to manage

natural resources at sea in its territory at most 12

nautical miles measured from shoreline towards the

open sea or towards archipelagic waters (Article 27

of Law No. 32, 2014). Indonesia as a unitary state,

facing the development of circumstances, both at

home and abroad, as well as the challenges of global

competition, deem it necessary to carry out regional

autonomy by granting broad, real, and responsible

local authority to the region proportionately by

arrangement, and utilization of national resources,

including authority on marine areas. To realize the

goal of the welfare state of the people, including

fishers, On April 14, 2016, Indonesia issued Law no.

7, 2016 on the Protection and Empowerment of

Fishermen, Power Fishers, and salt farmers. This law

is said to protect fishers because they are very

dependent on fish resources and environmental

conditions. The intended fishermen include small

fishers, traditional fishermen, fishers and fishers

owners who own fishing vessels, both in one unit and

in cumulative numbers over ten GT up to 60 GT used

in fish catching business. The existence of provisions

on protection against pollution of the marine

environment will provide many benefits. However, it

depends on how Indonesia, both the Central

Government and the Regional Government, can

implement international provisions relating to the

protection of the marine environment within national

provisions and how to implement interagency

coordination. Likewise with law enforcement

problems in maritime law regimes, in the event of

pollution of the marine environment also becomes

important to observe. Indonesia is only sovereignty in

its territorial sea. In ZEE and the Continental Shelf, it

has sovereign rights. A country does not have any

sovereignty on the high seas.The Ministry of Marine

Affairs and Fisheries is targeting by 2018 all

provinces have Local Regulations governing Zoning

Plan for Coastal Zones and Small Islands. It is time

for the Regional Government to regulate the marine

zone under its management so that the marine and

fishery sector can be done sustainably. Management

arrangement of marine area, among others, so as not

to have marine pollution. In the arrangement, if done

by law it will be valid for 20 years and can be

reviewed within five years. It includes various

aspects, such as the allocation of space in the area of

overall utilization, conservation areas, specific

national strategy areas and sea lanes, thereby

determining the priority of the marine regions for

socio-cultural, economic, marine transportation,

strategic and defense and security conservation.

Unfortunately, these arrangements are not well

socialized, either to the North Sumatera Provincial

Government, the old Village Government, the Bagan

Deli Belawan Municipal Government of Medan, the

Belawan Fisherman Bagan Fisherman Society and

the Fishermen Society of Kuala Lama Serdang

Bedagai and the Group of Fishermen Association

Indonesia Province of North Sumatra. It is also one of

the obstacles and challenges of the Provincial

Government of North Sumatra, especially Medan

City and Serdang Bedagai Regency regarding

providing legal protection for the east coast fishermen

related to compensation for pollution of the marine

environment originating from oil spills from tankers

in the Malacca Strait. Other obstacles and challenges

include: the absence of accurate, up-to-date and

measurable data concerning oil spill events due to the

tanker's defenses in the Strait of Malacca; lack of

competent Human Resources in the field of

environmental pollution damages sourced from oil

spills from Tanker ship in Malacca Strait; difficulty

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

1314

of coordination among government institutions,

coordination with community and fishermen

association.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Results obtained are the Legal Protection Protection

of the Province of North Sumatra, especially Medan

City, and Serdang Bedagai Regency still refers to the

Indonesian National Arrangement, among others, UU

No. 32 Tahun 2009, Presidential Decree No. RI. 18 of

1978, Law No. 17 of 1985, Law No. 32 of 2014, Law

No. 7 of 2016 and other relevant national legislation.

Challenges and Obstacles experienced by the

Provincial Government of North Sumatra in terms of

Legal Protection of Fishermen are related to the

unavailability of data and human resources that

support in terms of Legal Protection of Fishermen;

the absence of the North Sumatra Provincial

Regulation in the Provincial Regulation of North

Sumatera Provincial Government in the case of Legal

Protection of Fishermen in the form of compensation

for sea pollution due to tanker and difficulty of

coordination among government institutions,

coordination with community and fishermen

association. As for suggestions that will be given is

need to be held updating of data and improvement of

ability of human resource expert in field of

compensation of sea pollution caused by tanker; the

need to issue a Regional Regulation of the Provincial

Government of North Sumatra in the case of Legal

Protection of Fishermen in the form of compensation

for sea pollution due to tanker; and the establishment

of a system for coordination among government

agencies, coordination with communities and

fishermen associations can take place well.

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