Officers save protected turtles
Officers save protected turtles
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
For the third time in February, customs and excise officers, with
help from forestry ministry officers and environmental activists,
managed to foil an attempt to smuggle 309 pig-nosed turtles
(Carettochelys insclupta) through Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport late on Sunday.
Eddy Sensudi of the Ministry of Forestry's Nature Resource
Conservation Unit (KSDA) region II, said on Monday the live
hatchlings were about to be flown to Japan on a 7:30 p.m. flight.
He said the tiny creatures were placed in 10 ice boxes under
frozen patin (silver catfish) belonging to the company Young
Fish.
"We opened one of the boxes to check and found the live
hatchlings under the fish," he said.
Officers arrested the Young Fish employee who had delivered
the boxes, identified only as Mamat, 35. The company is located
in Cibubur, East Jakarta.
Mamat was still being questioned at the airport customs and
excise office as of Monday afternoon.
According to Eddy, the suspect confessed that he was also the
one who tried to smuggle 100 pig-nosed hatchlings in early
February and another 390 two weeks ago. On both occasions the
turtles were about to be sent to Japan.
All the turtles, each about one-month old, are now being kept
in Tegal Alur animal transit center, West Jakarta.
The turtles have a unique appearance that has brought them to
the brink of extinction because they are hunted as pets and for
stuffing as ornaments. People in Hong Kong are reported to be
fond of consuming their meat, purportedly for health reasons.
In a local pet shop, one hatchling is worth about Rp 150,000
(US$18). Eddy said the suspect had intended to sell the 309
turtles for a total of US$10,000 to $20,000.
The pig-nosed turtle has been declared an endangered species
in a ministerial decree issued in 1987. In 1999 the government
strengthened its protection by including it on the list of
endemic Indonesian species in Government Regulation No. 7.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) include the pig-nosed turtle in its Appendix I which bans
the removal of the turtle from its habitat and the sale of the
creature.