Indonesia and Australia have agreed to make readjustments in the management and utilization of their resources in areas along their common sea borders, local media reported on June 20.

The news was confirmed by Spokesman of the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries Affairs (DKP) Soen`an Hadi Poernomo who said both countries needed to cooperate in making the readjustments.

The readjustments will cover the welfare of traditional fishermen and the conservation of the ecology and natural resources in the border areas, Poernomo was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

He said the two sides, through the DKP and the Australian embassy, needed to carry out a joint research by experts of the two countries on the status of the ecological resources of the waters on their common borders.

Both sides agreed to decide the ecological status of the resources and openly define which resources still could be exploited, or could be exploited with a restricted number of fishing vessels/fishing equipment and time or period of fishing.

Poernomo said that the two countries also considered the need to define the categories of groups of fishermen crossing the sea borders./.