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Maritime affairs ministry detains two Vietnamese-flagged fishing vessels in Natuna
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry arrested 11 crew members from the two ships.
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Sink or swim: Indonesian authorities destroyed seven of 75 foreign illegal fishing vessels in waters off Belawan in Medan, North Sumatra province, on April 1. (AFP/Gatha Ginting)
T
he Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry detained two Vietnamese-flagged fishing vessels as they were passing through the North Natuna Sea, an official said on Wednesday.
A ministry patrol boat, KP Hiu 011, arrested the vessels for trespassing the border illegally and using a trawl to catch fish, which is forbidden in Indonesia.
The ministry’s acting director general for marine and fisheries resources monitoring, Agus Suherman, said the vessels’ crew members were arrested at 5:58 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
“We have arrested eight Vietnamese crew members on the BV 92468 TS ship, as well as three crew members on the BV 92467 TS ship,” Agus said in a written statement received by kompas.com on Wednesday.
The vessels were escorted to the Natuna Monitoring Unit (Satwas) on Riau Islands for legal proceedings.
According to results from an early inspection, the vessels violated Law No. 31/2004 on fisheries and the crew are subject to a maximum sentence of six years' imprisonment and Rp 20 billion (US$1.4 million) fine.
As of January, the ministry has detained 23 illegal fishing vessels comprising 18 foreign vessels and five domestic ones. Of the foreign vessels, 11 were Vietnamese-flagged, while the rest were Malaysian. (dpk)
