Don’t get in cahoots with foreign fishermen, warns dept
BINTULU: The local community especially those staying along the coastal areas like fishermen, and also fishing vessel operators including Fisheries Department officers, are warned against getting involved in any illegal activity with foreign fishermen.
Sarawak Marine Fisheries Department director Bohari Leng said allowing foreign fishermen to rob the country’s wealth and resources from local fishermen, would be regarded as an act of betrayal to the nation.
As such, he hoped that this kind of situation would not happen in Sarawak because the encroachment of foreign fishing vessels into Malaysian waters would be a great loss to the country’s natural wealth.
“We don’t want our people to have any connection with these illegal activities (encroachment) committed together with foreign fishermen in our waters,” said Bohari when speaking at a dialogue and interaction session with local fishing community at the civic centre here yesterday, which also doubled as a presentation of touch- point assistance by the department.
Bohari viewed the encroachment by foreign fishing vessels as an old issue faced by the country and recently, the federal cabinet had agreed to form a special taskforce led by the Home Ministry to tackle the issue, particularly the encroachment by Vietnamese vessels.
“If before we used to see Thai boats, but now Thailand has enforced a policy to fight the illegal, unreported and
We don’t want our people to have any connection with these illegal activities (encroachment) committed together with foreign fishermen in our waters. Bohari Leng, Sarawak Marine Fisheries Department director
unregulated ( IUU) fishing, and it has been a success,” he said.
On Oct 23, 2017, the European Commission ( EC) gave a ‘yellow card’ to Vietnam for IUU fishing, but Bohari said the IUU exploitation in Vietnam had become worse because they failed to control their fishermen from encroaching into neighbouring waters.
Bohari said in any industry, the laws must be followed and observed.
He said if the Vietnamese vessels would continuously encroach into Malaysian waters, it was possible that local fishing boat operators might also be involved in illegal fish- loading in the open sea.
“If this is not controlled accordingly, leakages would happen and most of our catch would not be landed at our jetties, but in the open sea instead,” he added.
On another note, Bohari regarded Bintulu as a vastly developing town with high purchasing power and job opportunities being offered to local residents, created by both old and new industries.
“For sure, the demand for fish and other marine products would also increase.
“Thus as a new approach in our fisheries development programmes, we must look at new opportunities and add value to our existing raw products,” he said.
Also present were Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency ( MMEA) Bintulu Zone deputy director (operations) Commander ( Maritime) Effendy Mohamed Fadil and Sarawak Fisheries Department Region 3 Miri chief Bunyamin Kiprawi.