Indonesia nabs two Malaysian fishing vessels

The Malaysian vessels, along with three others from Thailand, allegedly masked themselves as from Indonesia.

KUALA LUMPUR: The KRI Kapitan Pattimura, an Indonesian navy ship, on Thursday nabbed five foreign vessels for fishing in Indonesian waters close to the Indonesia-Malaysia maritime sea border. Three of the vessels detained and arrested were apparently from Thailand, the other two from Malaysia.

All of them reportedly masked themselves as Indonesian-flagged vessels but allegedly had no documents to prove their local status, according to Kompas.

The vessels have been detained since Friday at the Indonesian naval base in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. In all a total of 62 Thai and Malaysian nationals were on board the detained vessels. They are being held for further investigations.

According to initial reports from local fishermen in the waters where the five vessels were spotted by the Indonesian navy, the foreigners were trawling in the prohibited area. Although trawling today is heavily regulated in some nations, it remains the target of many protests by environmentalists. Environmental concerns related to trawling refer to two areas: the lack of selectivity and the physical damage which the trawl does to the seabed.

The Commandant of the KRI Kapitan Pattimura, Naval Lieutenant Colonel Fajar Herawan, has also confirmed that the five foreign vessels were caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. The suspect vessels, according to him, tried to flee towards Malaysian waters the moment that they were spotted, but their efforts proved futile when the Indonesian navy ship managed to cut off their attempt to escape. “Many types of fish, found in local waters, were on board the five vessels,” said Herawan.

Also found were many foreign flags aboard the ships. Apparently, the flags used by the detained vessels depended on which country’s waters they wanted to enter and fish illegally.