What role Fisheries Dept?
Published on: Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Questions are being asked as to what exactly is the Fisheries Department role when the repeat slaughter of sea turtles is allowed to happen on the very same island of Pulau Tiga, off Kudat, within just two years.Irate conservationists said what is surprising is that the Department's officials would be silent every time something like this happens."The power of the Federal Fisheries Act 1985 covers the protection of sea turtles so long as people are catching sea turtles illegally within Malaysian waters .
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"Whereas the jurisdiction of the State is 3 nautical miles (sea bed only), it is still within the purview of the Fisheries Department under the Fisheries Act even if the turtles are caught beyond three nautical miles, as along as the offence happens within Malaysian waters," according to a senior Fisheries official in Putra Jaya.He said if the offence happens on an island of Sabah, then the Department of Fisheries' legal position is that either the Sabah Wildlife Department or the Sabah Parks have the clear legal mandate.Since the Fisheries Department has enforcement staff and boats in Kudat and elsewhere, they have the bounden duty to chip in to help State agencies who also have their punitive legal mandates to bring culprits to justice in their own areas of jurisdiction, according to another fisheries expert who wished anonymity.Overall however, the Fisheries Department remains an interested party to any offence committed on sea turtles so long as it happens in Malaysian waters.
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"I am also fed up to read all these stories of bold and mass hunting and killing of sea turtles with the culprits getting off the hook scotch free every time and our enforcement units being helpless," he said."All the agencies empowered must pull their resources together and work as one to stem out such large scale decimation of turtles and marine life," said the fisheries specialist.
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"The Wildlife Department claimed it conducted regular patrols. If so and if the Fisheries Department also conducts regular patrols, there is no way these smugglers would have been so confident," he said.In fact, under amended laws, the killing of any of Sabah's Totally Protected species means going straight to mandatory jail up to five years, upon conviction.In January 2012, State Culture, Tourism and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masdi Manjun announced at the closing of an international Wildlife Conference that the Pygmy Elephant was now classified for the first time as a "Totally Protected Species" in Sabah, adding Sabah's jumbo to the list of dozen or so "totally protected" species which include the Orang utan, the Clouded Leopard, the Dugong, the Banteng (wild cattle), the Green turtle, Hawksbill turtle, etc. "That means if you kill a pygmy elephant, you go to jail ," he told an applauding audience.In a historic court case, on 13 February 2014, Lahad Datu Sessions Court judge R Rajalingam sentenced two foreigners, Armil Gundil and and Arcamsar bin Amil to four years jail each, for causing grievous injuries to a 15-year old male Orangutan which later died, at Sahabat 3 of Felda Plantation, Tunku.The duo were charged under Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, Section 25 (3A) and Section 37 which provides mandatory maximum jail term of five years without a fine option in default.At the same conference, then Director of Sabah Wildlife Department, Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the consensus reached between conservationists and oil palm top brass was to push for a "zero tolerance" to the killing of wildlife in Sabah, particularly the protected and "Totally Protected Species".Among the tactics suggested was that oil palm companies should fire workers guilty of killing protected species without official permission.After that , 14 elephants were found dead in the Gunung Rara area of central Sabah in January 2013, presumably from deliberate poisoning, but until now, no culprit had been caught, charged or jailed.In March the same year, Nature lover Alin James alerted in social media of 50 to 60 carcasses of Sea turtles lying in grief in the bushes behind the beach and labelled what he called a "killing field ' of sea turtles.Again, nobody has been caught, charged or jailed over the sea turtle massacre.As if to rub salt into the wound of the government agencies involved this mass slaughter repeated itself as if with glee with total liberty, on the same island between November 2014 till early March this year.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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