REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo supports the decision made by Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti to ban the catching of lobsters and crabs.
"Minister Pudjiastuti is still in a working meeting with Commission IV of the House of Representatives. Just wait for her," the coordinating maritime affairs minister said here on Monday.
The government has regulated the catching of lobsters and crabs with Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister's decision number 1/2015.
Pudjiastuti's decision regulates that lobsters (Panulirus sp) can be caught if the lengths of their carapaces are more than 8 centimeters; crabs (Scylla spp) can be caught if their carapaces are over 15 centimeters long; and rajungans (Portunus pelagicus spp) can be caught if their carapaces are more than 10 centimeters wide.
Soesilo explained that the marine affairs minister had come to the decision by calculating the number of mooring ships and the country's lobster potential.
"It is clear that the policy was made based on data," he affirmed.
Moreover, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries through its Fish Quarantine Agency (BKIPM) had thwarted attempts to smuggle out spawning lobsters and fly river turtles (Carettochelys insculpta) to Hong Kong and Shanghai, the chief official of the agency stated.
"On Saturday, we confiscated 10 boxes containing 2,350 fly river turtles, which would have been smuggled to Shanghai by a Singapore airline flight from the Soekarno-Hatta Airport," BKIPM Head Narmoko Prasmadji noted.
He revealed that on January 16, his office had also foiled an attempt to smuggle three spawning lobsters and 40 small lobsters measuring less than 8 centimeters. The lobsters were to be transported to Hong Kong on a CX-798 aircraft.
Prasmadji pointed out that if the turtles had been successfully smuggled out, the state would have incurred losses of some Rp470 million.
"We have yet to calculate the total losses the state would have suffered had the lobsters been smuggled out. The lobsters cost Rp700 thousand per kilogram," he added.
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