KUBU RAYA - Three juvenile porpoises (Orcaella brevirostris) were found dead in a fisherman's trawl in Kubu Raya waters. The three juvenile dolphins were caught 5 days ago (7/4) when the fishermen of Tasikmalaya Village, Batu Ampar Subdistrict, Kubu Raya Regency, West Kalimantan were pulling a trawl.

When caught that day, a local collector fisherman, Maskur (35), tried to sell the catch of three dolphins to the Flamboyant Market in Pontianak, to determine the value of the catch, but the market refused to buy them on the grounds that they knew that the species should not be traded. The three pumas were then brought back home, slaughtered and the meat distributed to local residents.

Pesut or Irawaddy Dolphin is a protected species of aquatic mammal. The species is on the IUCN's red list, in Appendix I, which means it cannot be traded internationally. In Indonesia, dolphins are found in the Kalimantan area in freshwater waters, estuaries to coastal areas. And since 2011, survey results from WWF have found this species in the waters of West Kalimantan. In Kubu Raya Regency, Pesut was first spotted in 2012.

Hearing this incident, West Kalimantan Program Manager, WWF-Indonesia, Albertus Tjiu, who directly visited the location of the incident, regretted it.

"Most of the people in this village actually already know the information that pesut is a protected species. The lax supervision of the application of the rules for the protection of these species has resulted in residents still catching them," Albertus said.

Collecting fisherman Maskur said, "We did not do this intentionally. The dolphin we found was already dead when we trawled it. The mother, who was still alive at the time, we released back into the ocean."

From the pieces of the three dolphins, each of them was only left with the head, fins and tail.

This urges for more intensive socialization related to the protection of dolphin species in this region. The importance of this socialization is fully supported by the Head of Batu Ampar Sub-District, Supriady. "WWF and the sub-district government will immediately design strategic steps to carry out a campaign to protect endangered species in Kubu Raya Regency, such as dolphins and proboscis monkeys, so that this incident does not continue to recur."

For further information, please contact:

Albertus Tjiu
(West Kalimantan Program Manager, WWF-Indonesia)
HP: 08125624019 | Email: Albertus@wwf.id