"The baby lobster were confiscated in a passenger port," Executive Officer of Dumai Naval Base Lt. Col. (KH) Saiful Simanjuntak told Antara here on Sunday.
The baby lobsters, packed in about 54 long plastic bags stuffed into five ice-cooled boxes of styrofoam, were sent to the Fish Quarantine Station and Fishery Product Quality and Safety Control (SKIPM) of Pekanbaru.
Each plastic bag is estimated to contain 200 babies of sand lobster aged around three weeks.
The arrest was made on Saturday at 7:30 a.m local time, based on an initial information that there will be delivery of baby lobsters from Jambi Province to Riau by land.
The perpetrators managed to escape and left five cooler boxes containing baby lobsters at the people`s pier in Sungai Piring Tembilahan, Indragiri Hilir Regency.
"The baby lobsters would be smuggled to Singapore," he said.
While Riau, he said, was only serve as an exit point before the commodity were smuggled to Vietnam through Singapore.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) is aggressively combating lobster seeds smuggling into Vietnam.
The prohibition is stipulated in the Regulation of the Marine and Fisheries Ministerial Regulation No. 56/2016 on prohibition to catch and export lobster and crabs from Indonesia.
Exports are permitted if the lobster has a weight of more than 200 grams. Laying lobsters are also prohibited from being sold.
Violation of the rule will be charged with a maximum imprisonment of five years.
Reporting by FB Anggoro
Editing by Eliswan Azly
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Andi Abdussalam
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
