LABUAN: Labuan marine police and fisheries enforcement team nabbed five Vietnamese and three Indonesian fishermen for illegal fishing with total seizure of RM336,600 in a separate operation yesterday morning.
The arrests and seizure were made during an integration operation dubbed as ‘Op Gelora Khas’ with Labuan Fisheries Department.
State Region 4 commander Assistant Commissioner Mohamad Pajeri Ali said the first arrest was on Vietnamese fishermen who were found to have carried out illegal fishing activity at 9am in the Malaysian waters off the emerging dive site of Vernon Bank.
“We seized their wooden boat with engine and fishing equipment worth of RM133,800 and no marine catch at the time of the arrest,” he told Bernama today.
The second arrest was on the Indonesian nationals on a trawler aged between 25 and 38 who were caught fishing using nets below 38mm, which is an offence under Section 26 (b) of the Fisheries Act 1985.
“The Marine and Fisheries Department were on Op Gelora Khas when our teams found them fishing illegally about 7.4 nautical miles off Tanjung Punai near University Malaysia Sabah Labuan waters at 6.50am yesterday,” he said in a statement today.
Pajeri said the catch totalling 150 kilogrammes, the trawler with the engine and fishing equipment all worth of RM202,800 were seized.
The cases were being investigated under Section 15(1)(a) and Section 26 (b) of the Fisheries Act 1985 respectively. — Bernama
