Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post 8 Oct 09;
Traditional fishermen in Kupang regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province have flung complaints over the crude oil spill polluting Timor Sea off Kolbano beach.
The fish catchers said the oil, which allegedly comes from the Montara oil well belonging to PTTEP Australasia, was only 20 miles away from the coast.
Gab Oma, a fisherman, said Thursday that he found thousands of floating dead fish when he went fishing on Tuesday.
"So many different kinds of fish died, namely red kakaps, tunas, and even dolphins. They smell very bad," he said.
The fishermen predicted the oil spill would reach the shore in a week.
Oma said that his financial earnings had dropped drastically in the last few weeks.
"I used to catch at least 100 red kakaps in one night. But last night, I only got four," he said.
Oma as well as other fishermen grabbed two jerrycans of polluted sea water and took pictures using cell-phones of the floating dead fish to be shown to the authorites.
"We need the government to take action as soon as possible regarding this issue," said Mustada, another fisherman, who headed a group of fishermen called the Timor Sea Traditional Fishermen Alliance.
The chief of the Indonesian Navy base in Kupang, Commodore Amri Husein, said that he had sent two teams to patrol around the reported spill site but found no floating oil.
As many as 500,000 liters of crude oil were leaked from the Montara offshore drilling rig off northwestern Australia. PTTEP Australasia has admitted that the rig has been leaking oil and gas into the sea since August 21.
The drilling rig is located about 150 miles (250 kilometers) to the northwest of the Kimberley coast in the Western Australia state.
