Dept: Sea transactions allow foreign fishermen to remain at sea for a long time, close to Malaysian waters

KOTA TINGGI: Foreign fishing boats conduct transactions at sea to allow them to stay away from shore for months at a time to enable them to intrude into Malaysian territorial waters to harvest bountiful catches.

Department of Fisheries Malaysia Resources Protection Division chief operations officer (enforcement) Osman Mohamed said most of the foreign fishermen who were Vietnamese nationals use sea routes on the east coast and move southwards until the waters of Johor and Pahang which are teeming with fish.

“We believe a mother ship meets them at sea to take their catches and replenish their supplies before sending all the fish to Thailand. This enables the fishermen to remain at sea for three to four months at a time.

“They don’t go back, they will stay close to our territorial waters and will hide if they detect our enforcement authorities,” he told reporters at the Malaysian Fisheries Department’s Resource Protection Base in Tanjung Sedili, near here yesterday morning.

According to Osman, the actions of the foreign fishermen not only affected the income of local fishermen but also destroyed coral reefs as they entered into sea areas which were forbidden for deep-sea fishing.

He said the department also received reports from local fishermen that foreign fishermen also intruded up to six nautical miles from the beach despite mostly being deep-sea fishermen and using nets which were banned here.

“Their area of encroachment starts from six to 40 nautical miles from the beach. Like the case we nabbed, they also use bottom trawling for which licences are not issued in Malaysia.Their aim is to also harvest sea cucumbers on the sea floor and close to Marine Parks,” he said.

On Tuesday, 22 Vietnamese fishermen were detained while their three boats and catches worth RM5 million were also seized.

Osman said two of the boats were each detained 43 nautical miles and 12.8 nautical miles from Tanjung Sedili Besar at 7.30am and 8.15am, respectively, while a local boat was detained at 9.2 nautical miles from Pulau Berhala, Nenasi, Pahang at 10.30am.

Those detained, aged 19 to 45 years, would be taken to the Kota Tinggi Magistrate’s Court for a week’s remand order to help in investigation. — Bernama