Environment body says it's safe to eat fish
Damar Harsanto and Theresia Sufa, Jakarta/Bogor
The Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) announced on Tuesday that it was safe to eat fish, more than a week after it warned the public not to consume seafood following the discovery of dead fish in Jakarta Bay.
"It is safe now to eat fish. Based on our observations, the neurotoxic substance that killed the fish has not been absorbed by the fish, but only affected their gills and belly," agency head Kosasih Wirahadikusumah told City Council Commission D on development affairs.
He urged concerned agencies like the Jakarta Animal Husbandry Agency, the Jakarta Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Agency and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to spread this message.
Kosasih also said public health centers and hospitals near the northern coast, which are being monitored by the Jakarta Health Agency, had reported no cases of poisoning caused by tainted fish.
The agency had earlier called on the public not to eat fish and clams from Jakarta Bay. This call had a negative effect on fishermen, who said fish prices dropped by up to 50 percent as a result.
In the hearing with the commission, Kosasih said that based on the agency's preliminary investigations, a red tide caused by an increased presence of toxic algae was the main cause of the dead fish in Jakarta Bay.
However, most councillors voiced doubt about this conclusion, suspecting highly toxic industrial waste dumped into the bay by nearby plants was the cause.
"If the red tide was simply a natural phenomenon, why did it not occur in other coastal areas nationwide? Dead fish should have also been found elsewhere," said Koeswadi Soesilohardjo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction.
He cast suspicion on the numerous industrial plants in the capital as the cause of the pollution.
"High levels of toxic phenol found in the seawater might be related to the practice of washing turbines. Phenol is a substance that is usually used to clean up operating turbines in plants," said councillor Tjuk Sudono of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction.
Tridoyo Kusumastanto, the head of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture's Center of Maritime Resources Studies, blamed the presence of toxic phytoplankton, coupled with industrial and household waste dumped into the sea, as the cause of the dead fish.
He said the center was still studying possible additional factors that might have been responsible for the incident.