Suspected of Illegal Sand Suction in Batam Waters, Two Ships Detained

KKP officers stood monitoring from a ship that was seized because it was suspected of carrying out illegal sand extraction in the waters of Batam, Riau Islands. (Antara)

The MINISTRY of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) through the Directorate General of Marine and Fishery Resources Supervision (PSDKP) revealed that two ships were suspected of carrying out illegal sand extraction activities in Batam waters, Riau Islands.

Director General of PSDKP KKP Pung Nugroho Saksono in Batam, Thursday, said that the two Malaysian-flagged ships were successfully secured by his party on Wednesday (9/10), when they passed the ship of the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono who was on a working visit to Nipa Island.

“So, what happened yesterday was Wednesday, October 9, the Minister made a visit to Nipa Island, and in the middle of the road we found this ship. This ship was indicated to be sucking up sea sand and we have been monitoring this ship for a long time, it is thin at the border, sometimes entering in our place,” said Pung Nugroho when releasing the disclosure, Thursday (10/10).

Also read: Greenpeace and Walhi Refuse to Be Involved in Study of Sea Sand Dredging

The man who is familiarly called Ipung revealed that when the ship was ordered to stop and be inspected, no official documents were found.

“We found this ship in front of us for inspection, we immediately ordered it to stop, and we carried out an inspection. When we checked this ship, there were no documents at all about the ship, only the captain’s personal documents were there. This is wrong,” stressed Ipung.

He said that the sand load on the ship was approximately 10 thousand cubic meters per suction for 9 hours. The sand will be sent to neighboring Singapore.

Also read: KKP Stops Illegal Sea Sand Mining Activities on 3 Islands

Furthermore, Ipung said that from the two ships, 29 crew members (ABK) worked on the ship which came from West Africa. Two of them are Indonesian citizens (WNI).

Even so, Ipung said that the 29 crew members were still under the presumption of innocence. However, his party will still carry out an in-depth investigation because they already have evidence that there are no ship documents.

“Next, we will investigate this ship, currently we have determined that it is based on the presumption of innocence. However, we already have a little evidence and we will develop the extent of the violation,” said Ipung. (Ant/N-2)