Recently the Fish Quarantine Inspection Agency (BKIPM) and the Fishing Safety Agency (KKP) thwarted a plot to illegally export protected pig nose turtles (which are adorable, as evidenced by the picture above).
The arrest was made at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Saturday as a follow-up to the passing of Decree No. 1 2015 about catching lobsters and crabs.
“We, through the Jakarta KIPM Unit, managed to thwart the efforts to export the protected pig nose turtle,” said the head of BKIPM, Narmoko Prasmadji, on Monday as quoted by Kompas.
The pig nose turtles were found during an inspection of a shipment of lobsters and crabs going to Hong Kong. The BKIPM found 2,350 turtles inserted between 49 boxes of crabs that were ultimately going to end up in Shanghai.
Based on data collected by Kompas, pig nose turtles are worth about Rp. 200,000 a piece, making the rescued turtles worth about Rp 470 million in total.
