“Stay away from Ontong Java”
FOREIGNERS have been warned to stay away from Malaita Outer Islands (MOIs), especially during the current beche-de-mer harvesting season, with a warning that any foreigners found on the island would be man-handled.
“Why do they go there only when the beche-de-mer season is open? Do they know that they are doing so illegally? They do not have a licence to trade there, local businessman, Dr. Reginald Aipia said last night.
“We know there are about 17 Chinese already on the island buying beche-de-mer. They do not have to travel there. They can wait here in Honiara and let our local people harvest the beche-de-mer and bring them to Honiara to sell to them,” Dr. Aipia said.
He said he is asking foreigners, especially Chinese to stay away from the Malaita Outer Islands (MOIs).
“Please do not tempt us to the point we’d be forced to do something we did not have to do. To make everyone happy, Chinese buyers should remain in Honiara. We will bring the products to them in Honiara,” he said.
Dr. Aipia said it is unfair for his people of Malaita Outer Islands that they only get visited when the beche-de-mer season is on. After that, the people never see a ship until the next season.
“They never even have a visitor when they are hungry. But now there are a lot of ships on the island simply because they want the beche-de-mer. Take this as a friendly warning – the local people will manhandle you if you are found to be illegally buying beche-de-mer there,” Dr. Aipia said.
It is understood that beche-de-mer from Malaita Outer Islands (MOI) accounted for about 56 per cent of beche-de-mer exports from Solomon Islands in recent years.
Dr. Aipia said a Malaita Provincial license is required to operate in the islands but the Chinese buyers never do that. Instead, they have been buying and operating in the islands since 1st September 2021.
“The Chinese agents and buyers are also engaged in deep sea drag netting which I have fought against as it is an illegal activity but still the reports I have provided to authorities have fallen on deaf ears.
According to Dr. Aipia, Chinese agents “provide more than 10, 000 drums of 44 gallon drums of petrol to do the drag netting.
“This is a prohibited activity and we don’t want it to be used on the islands. I am reminding them to get out from the atoll before we forced them to stop buying beche-de-mer in the atoll,” Dr. Aipia said.
