What would it take to make you voluntarily jump off a vessel in the middle of the sea?
For Muhammad Sanusi and five other crew members of the Russian-flagged fishing vessel Run Zeng 03, it was six days of grueling work, inedible food, and broken promises.
It started on Saturday, 6 April 2024, when Sanusi, 30, finally succumbed to exhaustion after working nearly ceaselessly since morning.
“That day, we started work at 6am and stopped at noon, before continuing from 1pm to 5pm. Then we started again from 6pm to 12pm . The second day, we worked non-stop from 7am to 1 am,” he said on Friday, 17 May 2024.
Sanusi was just one among dozens of crew members who were working to move the vessel’s 150-ton catch to the Mitra Utama Semesta vessel. “We were only given a few packs of cigarettes and coffee in exchange for our work,” Sanusi said.
The West Java native shared his bitter experience as a crew member on the 870 gross-tonnage (GT) vessel to Jaring.id and Tempo. “We ate and drank food that was unfit for human consumption,” he said. Before the vessel was seized on May 19, 2024, he said that he had been forced to eat rotten chicken and drink water that dripped from an air conditioner. The most painful thing, he said, was that the crew was banned from eating fish on the vessel, despite it being in abundant supply. “The vessel’s captain would never allow it,” Sanusi recalled, still angry.
The captain’s mistreatment of crew members, including Sanusi, did not stop there. Instead of providing medical treatment when one of the crew was hit by frozen fish, the captain just handed him coffee to stop the bleeding on his head. “Then he was told to go back to work,” said Sanusi.
There was also the matter of remuneration: the crew members had been promised a salary and holiday bonus (THR) of IDR 2 million, but received only a travel expense allowance of Rp 500,000. Because of that, Sanusi and several other crew members decided to go on strike on Monday, April 8, 2024.
The captain immediately contacted Gunawan Winarso, who managed the operations of the Run Zeng 03 and 05 vessels. Gunawan then promised to send money to the crew’s respective bank accounts. But the now angry crew members were not easily convinced. In fact, Sanusi said that many of the crew – including Sanusi himself – simply did not want to continue working on the vessel anymore, no matter what they were promised. They just wanted to go home, to eat and drink actual food. Sanusi said that they were told that another vessel to come and take them home.
Three days went by, but the vessel they were waiting for had yet to appear. The crew, whose only leverage was their labor, were asked to return to work until the pick-up ship arrived. At first, Sanusi complied with the request. Then he realized he had been tricked after the captain of the Run Zeng increased the speed of the vessel and headed towards the middle of the sea.
“At first, we were willing to wait because we were close to land, about 8 kilometers. We were waiting for the vessel to get closer to the shore. But instead, the Run Zeng turned left to go to the middle of the sea again. So my friend said, ‘Let’s go, if you jump, I’ll jump’”, he said.
A moment later, Sanusi jumped into the water.
After that, one by one, five other Run Zeng 03 crew members followed Sanusi into the deep. Only one of them had time to wear a life jacket, while three others held on to each other. In just a few minutes, Sanusi said, it seemed like the Run Zeng had disappeared, swallowed by high waves. The waves also seemed to carry off, Juanaaby, one of the crew members.
After several hours of drifting, Sanusi and a few of his friends were rescued by the crew of a purse seine fishing vessel. From the deck of that vessel, Sanusi tried to spot Juanaaby, but his search was fruitless.
The surviving crew members were then rushed to the community health center in Warabal Village. “I was in critical condition, I was given an IV. That night there was news from the Indonesian Military that we were also asked for information by the village officials,” Sanusi said.
Three days later, Sanusi received news that Juanaaby was dead. His body was found headless. “We don’t know what happened, whether [the head] was eaten by fish or something else. But if it was eaten by fish, you would expect there to be tearing. So we have our suspicions,” said Sanusi.
Several fishermen in Tual, Dobo, and the Aru Islands that we met with also had the same suspicions. They said that they had never found a body without a head even though deaths often occur in those waters. “If they drown or die, the fish only eat the limbs or parts of the head. [We’ve never seen] a whole head missing,” said Yadhi, a fisherman in Tual.
Juanaaby’s body was hastily buried by local residents. His sandy grave was made flat and has no tombstone, its only marker a hedge of bushes with colorful flowers.
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Two months before Sanusi and five crew members jumped from Run Zeng 03, Erwan Rudiyanto—not his real name—had experienced the same harrowing conditions. “Working on that vessel was an agonizing experience,” he said, bursting into tears during an interview on Thursday, May 16, 2024.
Erwan said that he would work almost 24 hours a day without proper food and drink. His role was as a fishing gear operator; he also sorted through the fish caught in trawl nets. Ribbonfish, red snapper, grouper, sharks and rays were just some of the kinds of fish that Erwan often found during his two months working on the Run Zeng.
After working for two months, all 27 Indonesian crew members aboard the vessel were summarily dismissed. Erwan himself was asked to sign a letter of resignation by the captain of the Run Zeng. They were then dropped off near Dobo Port, in Maluku province’s Aru Islands, with severance pay of only Rp 1.5 million per person. “We were dumped in Dobo,” he said.
The arbitrary dismissal that Erwan experienced is a common practice among illegal fishing vessels. It’s a cycle that continues because large vessels Run Zeng have easy access to large supply of workers from various regions in Indonesia as well as China. Several sources who have worked on the vessel revealed the existence of a ship – known as a “vegetable” ship, which supplies workers in the middle of the sea. “The vegetable ship that came, brought 20 Chinese crew members,” he said.
It didn’t take long for the negligent practices carried out by Run Zeng 03 to reach the ears of the management of the Paguyuban Mitra Nelayan Sejahtera – a fishermen’s association based in Pati, Central Java. The community operates in Fisheries Management Area 718 which includes the waters of the Aru Sea, Arafuru Sea, and the Eastern Timor Sea. They wrote to the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono on April 14, 2024. “We were concerned about the illegal fishing by foreign fishing vessels,” said PMNS Secretary, Siswo Purnomo.
The letter also informed the Minister of Run Zeng’s request to move its catch to a container at Dobo Port, Aru Islands, Maluku. The group rejected the request because the captain of Run Zeng could not show valid vessel documents. “[In the letter] we requested for strict enforcement action to be taken against illegal foreign vessels,” said Purnomo.
After they received the letter, the Ministry’s Director-General of Marine and Fisheries Resources Supervision (PSDKP) Pung Nugroho Saksono then tracked down the Run Zeng vessels 03 and 05. As part of this pursuit, the government also coordinated with neighboring countries Australia and Papua New Guinea as well as Interpol. On 6-8 May 2024, Australia detected the presence of the two vessels in Australian waters adjacent to Indonesia.
On 19 May 2024, the Run Zeng 03 vessel was detained, with 12 Indonesian crew members on board. Meanwhile, Run Zeng 05, carrying 19 Indonesian crew member, managed to escape before being captured in Papua New Guinea. In the operation, PSDKP also captured a vessel from Probolinggo, KM Yulian, which was conducting a transaction to buy and sell food and fuel with the two Run Zeng vessels.
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The Run Zeng vessels were made in Russia. Records show that the vessels are owned by Dopk Progress, a company with registered address of Care of Donggang Runzeng Ocean Fishing Co Ltd, 65-1, Donggang Beilu, Donggang, Liaoning, China. Meanwhile, the vessel’s operator is controlled by Donggang Runzeng Ocean Fishing, addressed at 65-1, Donggang Beilu, Donggang, Liaoning, China.
The vessel’s registered owners are listed as Yang Chuange and Sun Hiu. This husband and wife are widely-known in the fisheries business in China. According to reports in Chinese media, on November 4, 2017, the company inaugurated 10 Run Zeng vessels. The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the Chairman of Liaoning Runzeng Industrial Group, Ang Chuang, Deputy Chairman of Liaoning Runzeng Industrial Group, Sun Hui, and General Manager of the Russian Classification Society (RCS) China, Peter.
“The two parties have formed a deep friendship in the cooperation, and he is very grateful to all BOSHI workers who participated in the construction of 10 trawlers for their contribution to the development of the Run Zeng Group fishing vessel sector,” the report said.
Even China, this company is embroiled in more than its fair share of problems. There have been at least 290 cases involving Run Zeng since 2012. As many as 98 of these cases were related to labor disputes with crew members, followed by 32 cases involving trade agreements, and 31 cases of disputes with shipbuilder contracts. The company is also facing seven lawsuits. One of them was filed by a crew member of the Run Zeng 05 who claimed that the company owed him RMB 132,375 in wages and compensation, equivalent to Rp291,665,467. However, the court only ordered the company to pay RMB 117,933, equivalent to Rp259,845,013.
Based on data from the vessel’s automatic identification system (AIS), the Run Zeng 03 and 05 vessels were detected moving from Taizhou before entering Indonesian waters. Up until February 2024, both vessels had been in several regions of Indonesia before the vessel’s AIS system was turned off.
From this AIS data, we discovered that the Run Zeng had been at Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, on May 3, 2023. A Russian-language report that recorded the activities of Russian vessels and ports throughout 2023 said that the Run Zeng was detained in Tanjung Priok due to several indications of violations. Among them were being unable to show several vessel certificates and navigation records. However, despite having supposedly been detained, five months later, the vessel was observed dropping anchor at Bayah Port, Banten, and continuing its journey to the Banda Sea, Maluku Islands.
Two fisheries entrepreneurs who were aware of the Run Zeng investigation said that the Chinese-owned vessel was also detained by Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry officials in Ambon. However, it was released again after the investigation report was made. The Director General of PSDKP, Pung Nugroho Saksono claimed that Run Zeng’s presence in Tanjung Priok and the Banda Sea was only to take care of their permits. “They departed even though the process has not been completed,” said Pung in Sentul, Bogor, West Java, Thursday, September 26, 2024.
However, Pung has been accused of allowing Run Zeng to continue operating even though the vessel’s documents were not in order. The manager of Run Zeng in Indonesia, Gunawan Winarso, claimed this in the trial of the illegal transshipment case carried out by KM MUS and Run Zeng at the Tual District Court.
In a copy of the Tual District Court decision it is written, “Mr. Ipung ordered to allow the transhipment and then he was the one who arrested.” Pung said the actions he took were part of an investigative strategy to arrest Gunawan and the Run Zeng vessel. “It’s okay [that my name was mentioned during the trial]. When we take action in the field, sometimes we blend in with the bad guys,” he said.
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Since last year, we have been collecting traces of ex-foreign vessels that have been sailing in Indonesian waters using tracking machines, Marine Traffic, Global Fishing Watch, Lloyd List Intelligence, and the Automatic Identification System. We then supplement the data with testimonies from fishermen.
One of the ex-foreign vessels that we monitored was the Fu Yuan Yu F77. In May 2024, we tried to trace the vessel’s whereabouts in the Arafura Sea. We began the search by combing the closest point where the F77 was monitored in the Aru Sea area, but we found no results. Then we continued to search using speedboats to visit a number of points in the Arafura Sea. The search effort stopped after the boat we were on got caught in bad weather.
After calculating and considering safety factors, we finally decided to stop the search by spending the night in Apara Village. This village is not far from the island where the F77 had stopped, namely Enu Island.
For fishermen around the Arafura Sea, the vessel we were looking for was like a phantom. Even though its presence was detected, the 1,589-ton deadweight vessel was difficult to find because it moved quickly from one location to another.
Beni, a fisherman who has been fishing for mangrove crabs on Enu Island for decades, claimed to have seen the vessel approaching the island to avoid a storm in May 2024. “It was big,” he said when met in Apara Village, Aru Islands, in the first week of June. He said that the shape of the vessel he saw was exactly like the portrait of Fu Yuan Yu that was shown to him.
Another fisherman from Batu Goyang Village, Yadhi, also claimed to have seen the F77 around the port of PT Samudera Indo Sejahtera (SIS) in late August and early September last year. This confession was exactly the same as the AIS detection results that we collected.
The presence of the vessel in Tual is actually not a new story. This ex-foreign vessel was previously owned by PT Binar Surya Buana which is affiliated with the Maritim Timur Jaya company, a company managed by the Artha Graha Group owned by Tomy Winata. The results of tracking the vessel in the middle of the Arafura Sea between Merauke, Papua and the Aru Islands, Maluku also showed a recurring pattern. The Fu Yuan Yu F77 was often tracked around the IGP 19, 18, and IGP 29 vessel owned by PT Indonesia Gemilang Pualam, which is a business of PT Samudera Indo Sejahtera (SIS), formerly known as PT Maritim Timur Jaya.
Between 2023-2024, the vessel docked twice a year at the port owned by PT SIS in Ngadi, Dullah, Tual even though it did not have a business permit (SIUP) or a fishing permit (SIPI), which are required by several laws and regulations.
Aside from illegal transshipment, Tomy’s vessels are also suspected of marking down their size. This happened on the IGP 29 vessel with a deadweight registered with the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of 360 GT. According the vessels track record, which was accessed through IMO and the Electronic Quality Shipping Information System (Equaisi), it is known that the vessel actually has a capacity of 398 GT. Another oddity is that the government at the Ministry of Transportation also noted that the IGP 29 vessel was an ex-Binar 116. In the documents of ex-foreign vessels, the vessel was never owned by PT Binar Surya Buana but rather the Fu Yuan Yu 617 vessel which is a foreign vessel from China.
In order to confirm the findings, we asked Tomy for an interview through a media affairs officer at Artha Graha Group on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. The officer said that Tomy is no longer focused on the fisheries sector. He said that the management of the business is now handled by the management of PT Samudera Indo Sejahtera.
In a written response, PT Samudera’s Operations Director Arif Wijaya, said that his company does not have a vessel named Fu Yuan Yu F77. He claimed that all vessels operating under the PT Samudera flag have permits and comply with prevailing regulations in Indonesia. “We have no ownership or operational relationship with the vessel,” said Arif.
In the same response, Arif also confirmed that he had made changes to the vessel’s weight. This, he said, was done to adjust the fishing gear used. On the KKP licensing page, KM IGP 29 uses drift gillnet fishing gear. Although previously, the former Fu Yuan Yu 617 vessel was suspected of using trawl fishing gear.
“The reduction in the vessel’s weight occurred due to changes in fishing gear or modifications to the vessel’s structure carried out in accordance with Indonesian regulations. We ensure that before the vessel operates again, all procedures and legal requirements have been met to ensure compliance with applicable regulations,” he explained.
PSDKP Director-General Pung Nugroho Saksono claimed that the Fu Yuan Yu F77 that we detected was actually a wooden fishing vessel from Indonesia. The vessel, he said, used the AIS that was previously used by the Fu Yuan Yu F77. “That does not exist. We have checked that. That was an Indonesian vessel that installed an AIS bought in China,” said Pung.
Pung also claimed that there had never been a transshipment practice carried out by the Fu Yuan Yu F77 with the IGP vessel. “There was no transshipment. If there was (transshipment), we would definitely take action,” he said.
The Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI) – an institution that focuses on maritime and marine issues, also tracked the whereabouts of the Fu Yuan Yu F77. In a report released on June 11, 2024, IOJI identified the presence of the AIS Fu Yuan Yu F77 in the Arafura Sea using Sentinel-1. “The automatic identification system data is still listed as Fu Yuan Yu F 77,” wrote IOJI in its analysis document.
An observation carried out on April 3, 2024, found an object 80-90 meters long. The object is suspected to be a dark vessel because its dimensions are almost similar to the F77 which is 78 meters long. Because of that, in the same document, IOJI recommends that the government verify the vessel using Fu Yuan Yu F77’s AIS. This needs to be done to clarify the legal status of the vessel and its activities in Indonesian waters.
“If the vessel is proven not to have a permit to carry out fishing activities in Indonesia, then the vessel must be subject to sanctions in accordance with the applicable Fisheries Law. However, if the vessel turns out to be an Indonesian fishing vessel using AIS with the vessel name Fu Yuan Yu F77, then the vessel will still be subject to sanctions based on the provisions of the Shipping Law,” said IOJI in the document we received.
This article is part of a series investigating crimes in the fisheries industry in Eastern Indonesia, a collaboration between Jaring.id and Tempo, supported by the Pulitzer Center. You can read other articles in this series below:
