-- update --

Under the cover of darkness

Posted by Andrew

Today was slow. Unusually slow. Two freighters, a couple of barges full of logs, lots of smaller transport boats, but absolutely no loading or unloading as far as we could see.

We're anchored near the mouth of the Lamandau River, and have called on the President of Indonesia to send national police to clean up the massive illegal logging operations up the river. Meanwhile, we hope to keep things bottled up here until the national authorities arrive in force.

At about eight this evening, after sunset, a loaded barge pulled along side the Marthen, an Indonesian flagged freighter. The Marthen has been sitting there, off our port side, at least since yesterday, but right now, at eleven at night, they're loading. A team went out on our big boat with cameras and a powerful spotlight to document the operation. They confirmed that the cargo is flitches (squared logs).

We've alerted the authorities, who agreed that these flitches are illegal under Indonesian law. Now we'll wait to see what they do.