An Indonesian passport holder and his spouse were found attempting to translocate fishes illegally from Kuala Lumpur in International Airport of Adisucipto Yogyakarta on Tuesday, January 16. Guppies or Poecillia reticulate, the fishes owned by the couple, were transported into Indonesia without legal documents from competent authority of fish quarantine of country origin and Indonesia, leading to custody of the fishes in quarantine facilities of Stasiun Karantina Ikan Pengendalian Mutu dan Keamanan Hasil Perikanan Yogyakarta - Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan. The illegal act was successfully intercepted a result of close cooperation between Custom and Fish Quarantine and Inspection Agency of Yogyakarta.
According to Indonesian regulation, prior the importation of the fishes, ones must file notices to fish quarantine offices of arrivals point and have already set up an establishment for temporary quarantine facility for diseases examination before released to other culture facilities. Also legal permit from Directorate General of Aquaculture of Marine Affairs and Fisheries for release of the fishes in Indonesia must also be issued before ones transport fishes from abroad.
However, the owner, TW and EWP, failed to do so and later investigation revealed that legal quarantine documents released from departure point on which it is declared that the fishes are already subjected to an examination to free from harmful diseases was also none.
“Illegal imported fishes, especially live ones, are considered a major threat to our biodiversity, because fishes such as guppies are known as host of several dangerous viral diseases like Spring Viraemia of Carp, Megalocytivirus, and Viral Nervous Necrosis. While the latter two are already present in Malaysia, Yogyakarta is free of the diseases. So any hosts of the diseases must be examined and declared free of the pathogen before entering Yogyakarta”, said Suprayogi, the head of Fish Quarantine and Inspection Agency of Yogyakarta.
The trio diseases are able to cause extreme mortality of local fisheries resources once they swarm in waters of Yogyakarta. In fact, Yogyakarta is known as significant freshwater fish producers from which not less than 165 million fish seeds were sent to various islands of Indonesia while potentials of export of the commodities are just a stone’s throw away.
He added that threat also came from the fishes’ invasive status that if they are released in wild intentionally or unintentionally, their genetic characteristics would mix with local fishes of similar species and it is not good for future of the ecosystem since new genetic profile brings unknown traits which might be unfavorable in term of susceptibility to diseases.
The illegal importation itself breached Indonesian Quarantine Law no 16 / 1992, Government Regulation no 15 / 2002 on Fish Quarantine, and Minister Regulation of Marine Affairs and Fisheries no 20 /2007 on quarantine measures for importation and translocation of fish diseases carriers in arrivals point within Indonesia.
Any fishes coming into Indonesia without proper legal documents are given 3 days detention period for the owners to accomplish all requirements for release. If they fail to do so, eradication is the only option for the fishes as being ordered by the Law.
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