An 18-year-old tricycle driver was arrested for illegally gathering starfish in barangay Palanas, Alcantara town, southwest Cebu.
Police said 400 pieces of starfish and two gallons of formalin were confiscated from Alvin Elarcosa.
Elarcosa will be charged with violating Republic Act 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code, said PO1 Daryl Linda of the Alcantara Municipal Police Office.
“What he gathered was not an endangered kind of starfish, but he didn’t have a permit from the local government allowing him to gather starfish,” Linda said in Cebuano.
A police team rushed to sitio Lawis Saturday morning after receiving a report that a man was seen in possession of several starfish.
Police later caught Elarcosa drying the star fish along the road.
Elarcosa was detained at the town’s police station pending the filing of charges against him, police said./ Niña Bianca S. Sayson, UP-Cebu Intern