TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono is targeting Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) to become a world-class center of lobster aquaculture that is considered as a reference for other countries.

“We must have that spirit,” said Trenggono in an official statement after visiting the Awang Bay Fishing Port in Central Lombok on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.

In Awang Bay, Trenggono visited fishermen of lobster seeds and lobster farmers. He also monitored floating net cages belonging to the community around the fishing port by boarding a fishing boat.

To support the productivity of domestic lobster aquaculture, Trenggono said that his side will ease the bureaucratic process for aquaculture licensing. In addition, the ministry will provide facilities and infrastructure, assistance for farmers, as well as prepare the markets.

Previously on February 28, 2021, former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti via her Twitter account highlighted the aquaculture of glass eel and spiny lobster which have been now on the verge of extinction and have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Susi argued that the two species should be protected and taken only for consumption. She thus asked the ministry not to make the aquaculture program look like camouflage for collecting lobsters.

Read: Fisheries Ministry Suspends Issuing Export Permits for Lobster Larvae

FAJAR PEBRIANTO