KEMAMAN: They had flown the Jalur Gemilang on their fishing boat in the hope of deceiving the authorities, but it was not to be as the 14 Vietnamese men on board were detained by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) for trespassing and illegally fishing in the waters off Terengganu yesterday.
Kemaman Maritime Zone director Maritime Commander Rashidilhadi Abd Rashid said the 13 fishermen and the boat’s skipper had put up the Malaysian national flag and used a fake local registration boat number to mislead enforcement officials.
“The boat was seized together with its 13 crew members and skipper at about 10.05am yesterday at 117 nautical miles from Kuala Kemaman,” he added in a statement.
Checks revealed that the fishermen aged between 26 and 48 years who did not have valid identification documents, were fishing in the waters. They then tried to escape upon realising that the authorities were present in the area.
“The seized items which included the boat, fishing equipment and two tonnes of fish had an estimated value of RM1 million,“ he said.
Rashidilhadi said the fishermen had been taken to the Kemaman Maritime Jetty for further action.
The case would be investigated under Section 8 (a) of the Fisheries Act 1985 for operating without a valid license from the Director of Fisheries, Malaysia. — Bernama
