Indonesia denies allegations of dolphin, whale hunting

Channel 6 News, Jakarta: Indonesia denies allegations of dolphin, whale hunting
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Indonesia on Wednesday denied accusations that whales and dolphins were being hunted down in Indonesian waters, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Environment officials released a statement in response to a video and photos posted online by US-based nongovernmental organization Earth Island Institute alleging there was evidence of the killing of whales and dolphins in Indonesia. The country bans the hunting of dolphins and whales as they are protected.



"It is not true. How could that be? I have never heard of dolphins being hunted before," Agus Apun Budhiman, director of fish resources at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said at a press conference.

"Local people consider them [dolphins] as man's best friends, so they would not go after them, let alone eat or use their meat as bait," he added. 



The video posted on the NGO's website showed an interview with a local fisherman describing how dolphins are captured using home-made bombs.



"They use dynamite placed in beer bottles and throw them at dolphins. After dolphins got too weak, they captured them and tied their tails. They use them as baits for sharks as they needed [shark's] fins that could be worth Rp 1 million [$117] for one kilogram," the fisherman said in the interview.




The site also posted a picture of people surrounding a killer whale on shore in Lamalera, a village known for its tradition of whaling. Femke den Haas, founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, the local partner of Earth Island Institute, acknowledged the whaling that had long been practiced in Lamalera.



"However, the capture of dolphins and orcas with the use of motorboats has nothing to do with tradition," Femke said.



She added that the photos and the video did not indict just Lamalera since "Indonesia is fast losing its shark population and dolphins are getting killed in the process too."

"If it's the traditional way of hunting whales for local consumption, we can’t have any objection. But the villagers started to use motorboats since 10 years ago and now so many dolphins are being captured and this is not part of tradition anymore," Femke added.