Five fishing boats, 36 crew members detained
LABUAN: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency ( MMEA) detained five fishing boats and their 36 crew members in the waters off Labuan on Saturday.
According to MMEA Maritime Director Che Adnan Md Isa, the boats were Malaysianowned although they resembled Vietnamese fishing boats.
“Upon checking by MMEA personnel, the boat licences looked in order although the identification documents of the crew members were in doubt,” he said in a statement yesterday.
According to Che Adnan, the MMEA boat which was conducting ‘Operasi Sejahtera’ in Labuan detected the boats on radar about 26.6 nautical miles north east of Tanjung Kubong.
The boats, he said, were about 50 metres apart and after a closer check, MMEA personnel found that they were registered in Malaysia.
“They were however, doubtful of the authenticity of the crew members’ identification documents,” he said, adding that the crew were aged between 16 and 57 years old.
The boats, he said, were licensed to use longline fishing nets but some of the vessels were carrying nets not stipulated in their licences.
Two of the vessels had also undergone modifications where their fish storage tanks had been turned into diesel storage tanks, he disclosed.
The case, he said, will be investigated under the Fisheries Act 1985.