Eight killed after boat sinks in eastern Indonesia

Xinhua, English.news.cn 2010-02-01 13:32:36

JAKARTA, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy to Indonesia confirmed on Monday that 24 Chinese citizens were involved in the fast boat sinking accident in eastern Indonesia waters.

By now, eight people were confirmed to have been killed and one evacuated safely from the accident, said Amin Bintongke, head of operational of Maluccas rescue team, on Sunday. He told Xinhua over phone from Maluccas that among the 33 victims, 24 were Chinese passengers, five were crews, and the others were unidentified passengers.

Zhong Ruiming, counselor of Chinese Embassy, told Xinhua that the Embassy attached great importance to the accident as soon as they received the information, and it had asked Indonesia government to send navy force and professional rescue team to search the Chinese victims.

However, Zhong has not identified the 24 Chinese citizens on board.

The accident happened on Jan. 27 at 15.00 local time (0600 GMT) in Moluccas water near the Southeast Maluku province. The "Dolphin " fast boat carrying 33 people sank near the Aru islands due to bad weather and waves as high as two to five meters.

"The boat sank at the midday, one hour after it left the harbor in Dobo island in Aru islands for Tual district in Southeast Maluku," Amin said.

"Eight people have been found dead, some of them are Chinese, and another Chinese has been found alive. The rest of 24 people are still missing," he added.

Poor weather has been blamed for the accident, as the country's meteorology and Geophysics Agency had issued a warning not to sail since days ago. "It seems that the boat violated the warning. It departed from an old harbor in Dobo, but actually it should leave from an official harbor with permission," said Amin. "The passengers seemed forced the boat to sail, as they had an urgent business."

Search and rescue work is still under way, in spite of the bad weather here, he said.

According to Antara news agency, there were 35 people on board, and the 24 Chinese victims were employed by a local company PT. Arabika Jaya Tama (AJT) to build a factory in Penambulai island of Maluku.

Editor: Li Xianzhi

Dick Hamilton, Retired NCWRC Chief and CFRG Co-founder Named "Sportsman of The Year"

Dick Hamilton has been named the 2009 "Sportsman of The Year"by NC Sportsman Magazine. In addition to his 37 years with the NCWRC, the magazine noted Dick's involvement with the Camo Coalition, (the NC division of the Wildlife Federation,) and his efforts in creating the CFRG and guiding the group through its first year of engaging NC coastal fisheries issues.

The NC SPORTSMAN story about Dick's award and lifelong accomplishments can be read at the following link........ http://www.northcarolinasportsman.com/details.php?id=1319

Govt to control fish prices soon

Antara News, Sunday, January 31, 2010 23:18 WIB

A fisherman repairing a net at Cilincing, North Jakarta. Fishermen make just Rp 900,000 a month on average and find it hard to get bank loans. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Marine Resources and Fisheries Ministry is set to intervene in the fish market soon to control its prices.

"This is about supply and demand. And we are to launch a limited market intervention to stabilize fish prices," Minister Fadel Muhammad said here on Sunday.

Fadel said the domestic fish market must be controlled to set fish prices to certain level without sacrificing the interests of fishermen, fish farmers and people at large.

"Like in the past, we will focus it (the market intervention) on tuna. When the market is oversupplied (with tuna) and cold storage facilities cannot accommodate it, then its price will fall to Rp6,000 a kg. Under these circumstances, we will export it to allow the price to return to normal," he said.

So far, China and Japan had adopted limited intervention to control fish prices in their domestic market, he said.

"I think it (the market intervention) will not cost us huge funds. About Rp200 billion to Rp300 billion is enough," he said.

The market intervention aimed at protecting fishermen, fish farmers and the public was not tantamount to subsidy and therefore, it would not run counter to World Trade Organization (WTO) rulings, he said.

Arif Satria, director of research and strategic studies at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said the minister`s plan to launch the market intervention was good idea.

"This is good idea to promote fishermen`s living standards. The idea is worth supporting," he said.

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