Antara News, Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Pontianak, West Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - National marine police have caught eight Indonesian-flagged Vietnamese boats while illegally fishing in the exclusive economic zone in Natuna.
The boats were caught during police operations from December 9 to 16, the director of intelligence and crimes of the West Kalimantan Regional Police Command, Senior Commissioner Bambang Priambada, said here on Wednesday.
The boats had raised Indonesian flags and names to cover up so that Indonesian police would think they are local boats, he said.
All the skippers and crew of the boats are Vietnamese, he said. "We have so far named eight suspects namely their skippers while 101 crew members of the boats are still under detention waiting for their deportation," he said.
The eight boats along with their catch reaching 27 tons of fish are now being entrusted to the West Kalimantan regional police command pending their legal process.
"According to the temporary results of investigation they have conducted fish poaching around a month. But we are predicting they had operated for more than a year. They sold their catch to a collector ship in the high seas," he said.
He said after investigation the legal process of the eight skippers would be referred to the Pontianak Fishery and Marine Resource Supervision for a further process and later a court trial.
One of skippers, Pong Hai, said he and his fellows braved fishing illegally in the Indonesian waters because no fish had now been found in their country`s waters.
"Fish in the Indonesian waters is still abundant and therefore we are poaching here," he said.
He said he spent US$10 to an Indonesian citizen to change the name of his boat with a name in the Indonesian language.
West Kalimantan waters are included in Zone III along with Natuna, Karimata and South China Sea with fish potentials reaching one million ton a year.
The West Kalimantan waters strecthes up to 26,000 kilometers up to South China Sea covering 2,004,000 hectares of public waters, 26,700 hectares of pond culture waters ad 15,500 hectares of sea.
The fish species found in the waters include tuna, mackerel and squid.
