Encroachment by foreign fishermen due to help from locals: MMEA

PORT KLANG: The encroachment of Malaysian territorial waters by foreign fishermen, particularly those from Vietnam, is due to the help they receive from local fishermen.
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Abu Bakar said some irresponsible Malaysian fishermen had employed fishermen from Vietnam, and this often led to the encroachment.
"This is the information we obtained through monitoring and intelligence on the Vietnamese fishermen in the country. In fact, there are local fishermen who are found to have masterminded in the cloning of vessels besides using a trawl called 'pukat ganding'.
"As such, MMEA will continue to closely monitor the activities of local fishermen who hire Vietnamese workers as we are worried that they can engage in the intrusion of foreign fishermen," he told reporters at the keel laying ceremony of an offshore patrol vessel here, today.
Zulkifli said such illegal activities had been less frequent at the moment since the efforts by the Vietnamese government to revise the law to restrict their fishermen from encroaching the territorial waters of other countries.
Meanwhile, commenting on the the issue where local fishermen claimed to have been shot by an Indonesian enforcement agency on July 18 in Malaysian waters, Zulkifli said investigations by the two countries revealed that the bullets were indeed owned by the republic's authorities.
"During our investigation with the Indonesian Marine Police, they said that our fishing boat had encroached into their waters. There are reports from our fishermen that the boat had crossed the border.
"Further investigation found that the boat had indeed encroached into the neighbouring country's waters but the use of firearms by their authorities was uncalled for."
Zulkifli also said the decision to fire while in the line of duty was supposed to serve as a warning but in the incident, the random shots to the fishing boat was inappropriate. — Bernama