Vietnamese fishing boat tries to ram MMEA ship

PASIR PUTEH: The twenty-three member crew of a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) ship, the KM Jujur, faced an anxious moment when it was almost hit by a Vietnamese fishing boat when it attempted to haul up the foreign vessel for encroaching.
Tok Bali D10 Maritime Operations deputy director, Ismail Hamzah, said the ship managed to avoid the fishing boat and detained it after a 40-minute pursuit 102 nautical miles from Kuala Tok Bali at 8.41am yesterday.
"A skipper and five crew, aged between 32 and 52 years, were detained by MMEA and the boat was towed to the Tok Bali port for further investigation.
"The total amount of seizure is estimated at about RM80,000 including fishing and marine equipment," he told a press conference at the Tok Bali MMEA office, here today.
He said the investigation was carried out under the Fisheries Act 1985 and the Immigration Act for not having any valid documents.
According to him, lately Vietnamese illegal fishermen have been utilising a new tactic by not being far from their friend's boats, which had local fishing permits to fool the local patrolling authorities.
"When the MMEA ship patrolled yesterday, there were eight boats in close proximity to each other and relaying information to each other on the presence of the authorities," he added. — Bernama