May 8, 2007 - KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA
Chinese turtle boat with 397 dead sea turtles aboard discovered! Nono Rachmad Basuki of the Turtle Foundation reports:
„This is my report about the seizure of a boat under Chinese flag with the name 'Hainan 02099' with 22 seamen. The captain's name is: Huang Shuchen. On the 8th of May the boat was discovered and stopped by Indonesian customs at the following position: 2’ 32º North / 119’ 10º East. As the officers spotted dead sea turtles on the boat the national office for environment 'KSDA' was informed. The Chinese boat was taken to the port of Tarakan.
On the boat we found the following:
296 Hawksbill Turtles, treated with formalin, size of carapace: 20 - 90 cm
90 Green Turtles, treated with formalin, size of carapace: 20 - 90 cm
1 Olive Ridley Turtle
4 cans of formalin with 25 liters each, 100 Liter in total
17 nets with 38 cm nitting distance
3 giant mussels, approx. length: 100 cm
1 stuffed pufferfish
2 speedboats with 60-PS-engines
KSDA will bring the seamen to Court. They are currently detained by the Tarakan police. Initially it was difficult to communicate with them as they spead neither English nor Indonesien nor Mandarin. Later a translator was found who spoke Hainan-Chinese.