Google satellite tracking is Indonesia’s weapon in fishing war

Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia's minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, speaks during an interview in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, April 6, 2018. Partnering with Google Inc., Pudjiastuti is catching illegal fishing activity in real time, after thousands of vessels’ locations were revealed online. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg

Indonesia’s Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti deals with some dangerous men in her role, but they don’t rattle her. She has an equally intimidating weapon on her side: Google. 

Partnering with the search engine firm, Pudjiastuti is catching illegal fishing activity in real time, after thousands of vessels’ locations were revealed online. In her mission to clean up an industry once the domain of crooks, she’s convinced powerful local operators with foreign interests to stop practices that were robbing the economy of billions of dollars of revenue each year.