300 Kg of Plecostomus Fish Caught in One Hour at Setu Babakan Channel in South Jakarta

The South Jakarta City Government captured around 300 kilograms (kg) of plecostomus fish in one hour at the Setu Babakan connecting channel (PHB) in Jagakarsa, South Jakarta, on Friday morning (17/4/2026). The activity was directly led by the Mayor of South Jakarta, Muhammad Anwar, who also helped transport the plecostomus fish for burial. “In just over one hour, we got 300 kilograms. We target 5 tons today. And not just today, we will continue until it’s completely zero, gone,” said Anwar when met at the location on Friday. Several officers were deployed directly into the water to catch the plecostomus fish using conventional methods with nets. After hundreds of fish were netted, officers waiting on the side immediately transferred the fish to holding boxes. Next, the fish were taken to a plot of land at the Setu Babakan Water Gate Guard Post. There, thousands of plecostomus fish were buried. The Head of the South Jakarta Agriculture and Food Security Office (Kasudin KPKP), Ridho Sosro, said that currently, they are considering destruction using a waste incinerator. However, due to pollution considerations, destruction is currently only done conventionally. At least five connecting channels have been identified as having plecostomus fish. “Yesterday I also surveyed the Bintaro Permai area, perhaps we will schedule when to carry out a capture operation like this. Then in Cilandak there is also a PHB in the Cilandak area, and one more in the Setiabudi or Tebet sub-district,” said Ridho. To anticipate the use of plecostomus fish in food, the South Jakarta KPKP Office will also raid siomay production houses. “We might trace it again to those siomay processing houses. Because it’s possible that we’ve given education but there are irresponsible people who still market plecostomus fish meat,” stated Ridho.