Law Enforcement Against Illegal Fishing Perpetrators in Indonesia-Australia Border Waters (Case Study in Rote Ndao Regency, NTT Province)

This study discusses law enforcement against illegal fishing practices in the waters of Rote Ndao Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, which directly borders Australia. Normatively, the legal basis for countering illegal fishing has been regulated in Law Number 31 of 2004 concerning Fisheries and Law Number 45 of 2009, including regulations regarding fishing permits, prohibitions on the use of dangerous fishing gear, criminal and civil sanctions, and the establishment of the Fisheries Court. However, in practice, various serious obstacles are still found in the field. This study uses a qualitative approach through interviews, observations, and document analysis to identify the role of legal policies and factors that hinder implementation in border areas. The results of the study show that law enforcement has not been running optimally due to overlapping authority among law enforcement agencies, limited human resources and monitoring facilities, the absence of a deterrent effect due to inconsistent sanctions, and weak legal awareness among fishing communities, which is further exacerbated by coastal economic conditions. This study contributes to the scholarly discourse by demonstrating that the weakness of illegal fishing law enforcement in border areas is not caused by a legal vacuum, but rather by failures in policy coordination and implementation. Thus, the main weakness lies not in the absence of the rule of law, but in weak implementation and coordination in the field. This study recommends the need for law enforcement governance reform, modernization of technology-based monitoring facilities, consistency in the application of sanctions, and an approach based on economic empowerment and legal education for coastal communities so that efforts to eradicate illegal fishing can be carried out effectively, fairly, and sustainably.