A penchant for dynamiting illegal fishing vessels has made flamboyant Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti Indonesia's most popular, and restored tens of thousands of jobs to small-scale fishing along the way.

Sorry, this audio has expired Indonesia outlines successful strategy in combating illegal fishing ( Jemima Garrett )

When she was appointed to President Joko Widodo's cabinet 14 months ago, commentators thought Ms Pudjiastuti and her illegal fishing crackdown would not last.

In Bali last week, she told delegates from 40 nations attending Pacific fisheries negotiations that depletion of Indonesia's fisheries were so bad that businesses worth $4 billion had closed down.

Between 2003 and 2013, the number of households earning their primary income from fishing dropped by half to 800,000.

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"Shrimps and fish in small villages decreased every single year until one day everything stopped," Ms Pudjiastati said.

"There is nothing to export anymore, and even hard to find something to eat."

Indonesia, with its 17,000 islands, has the world's second longest coastline and 5.8 million square kilometres of ocean territory. Fish is a vital source of protein for its population of 250 million people.

A self-made business tycoon who started out 30 years ago with a small fish and lobster business, Ms Pudjiastuti now owns a major domestic airline.

It was from this position that Mr Widodo enlisted her in an ambitious plan to reset the world's view of his nation.

"The vision of the President is to bring back the prosperity of Indonesia as a maritime country," she said.

"We want to build back our strength as the centre of gravity of marine activity around the region."

Tough approach draws immediate results

Ms Pudjiastuti studied the fisheries data and came up with a radical new approach — banning large foreign fishing vessels and transhipment of fish at sea, restricting commercial fishing to a narrow band between 12 and 20 nautical miles offshore, and halting illegal fishing.

For every licensed fishing vessel, Ms Pudjiastuti found there were five or six that did not have a licence. Incursions from neighbouring countries were frequent.

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To show she meant business, the Fisheries Minister dynamited more than 40 illegal fishing boats and circulated the pictures on social media.

She said the initially people feared her action would shut down the fishing industry, one of Asia's largest.

"In the end, we found it different. The tuna catch is more," Ms Pudjiastuti said.

In the 12 months since the new policies were introduced, economic growth in the fishing sector has been more than 40 per cent.

Tens of thousands of households have gone back to fishing for a living, and large yellowfin tuna are again being seen near the coast and caught by small-scale fishers.

Ms Pudjiastuti is aiming to grow the number of small-scale fishing businesses back to 1.6 million. Existing supply chains for export by these businesses are being revitalised.

With Indonesia's oil, mining, logging and agricultural industries in decline or struggling to post more than average growth, all eyes are now on its fisheries.

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"The only hope for this nation is the ocean," Ms Pudjiastuti told almost 600 delegates from small Pacific countries, as well as fishing powers such as China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Europe.

Tuna migrate thousands of kilometres through the waters of many nations.

"We are taking a very tough and very strong measure," Ms Pudjiastuti said.

"It is for the good of our nation and our region, not only for us."

Indonesia recently signed agreements with Australia and Papua New Guinea to work more closely to combat illegal fishing.

But the Pacific Tuna Commission, which sets the rules for the world's biggest fishery, makes decisions by consensus and its Bali meeting failed to take new measures to protect even critically overfished species.

Northern bluefin and bigeye tuna are down to 4 per cent and 16 per cent of their original stocks.