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Indonesia nabs serial sea poachers in Strait of Malacca
Indonesia’s maritime forces nabbed last weekend MV Nika, a Panama-flagged fishing vessel that had come under the pursuit of Interpol and a handful of countries for transnational fisheries crimes that include illegal fishing, open-sea transshipment and serial identity fraud
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I
ndonesia’s maritime forces nabbed last weekend MV Nika, a Panama-flagged fishing vessel that had come under the pursuit of Interpol and a handful of countries for transnational fisheries crimes that include illegal fishing, open-sea transshipment and serial identity fraud.
The ship was seized in the Straight of Malacca by Indonesia’s maritime patrols on Friday and towed back with the help of Indonesian Navy warships to the Batam marine and fisheries supervision (PSDKP) port in Riau Islands province on Sunday, along with its crew of 18 Russians and 10 Indonesians.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who came out to Batam alongside local senior administration officials and the national maritime authorities to survey the vessel, said the 115 anti-illegal fishing task force had swiftly moved to seize the ship following a tip-off from Interpol informing on its presence in Indonesia’s maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“The investigation into the MV Nika will be taken over by our authorities for suspected violations of the Fisheries Law,” Susi told reporters in Batam on Monday.
“It will be confiscated by the state — I wish to turn it into a museum of sorts so that the younger generation will bear witness to the crimes perpetrated on this ship.”
MV Nika, which had been placed on the international wanted list in June, was due to embark on a journey to Wei Hai port in China but was stopped after Interpol alerted the authorities on June 22.
The vessel and its crew stand accused of fisheries crimes and multiple administrative violations such as double-flagging, forging registration documents and falsely declaring itself a general cargo vessel, according to ministry officials and various reports from maritime authorities.
According to the Convention on Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and an inspection report from the United Kingdom Marine Management Organization (UK-MMO), the MV NIKA had committed illegal fishing and/or transshipment in the territorial waters of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, as well as Islas Malvinas of the Falklands.
The ship also stands accused of misappropriating the Automatic Identification System data of another vessel to conceal its identity as it entered the CCAMLR territory to fish illegally, and is known to have assumed different names and registration under different flag states — Cambodian, South Korean, Panama and Honduras.
Susi said the MV NIKA and its crew were under investigation by the 115 task force and Interpol for possible fisheries violations in Indonesian waters.
She also called on the relevant flag states to take concrete action to punish the perpetrators who had misappropriated their national flags as a means to commit fisheries crimes.
During her inspection in Batam, the minister appealed to the 10 Indonesian crew found onboard to be open and forthcoming with the investigators, especially as they were likely get off with a meager three-month jail sentence.
Some of the fishermen claim they were promised a wage of US$350 to $380 per month to work on a fishing vessel in China.
Ilyas, the Russian captain of the MV NIKA, claimed he had been working onboard the ship since February and that he was tasked with transferring his catch to another vessel leaving for Uruguay.
The seizure of the MV NIKA was made possible under the Multinational Investigation Support Team (MIST) initiative that Indonesia helped establish as a platform for collaboration between maritime stakeholders that includes Panama, Interpol, CCAMLR and Australia, as well as the United States as observer, said Mas Achmad Santosa, head of the anti-illegal fishing task force.
MIST will play a supporting role for the Indonesian authorities for the purposes of the investigation of the seized vessel in Batam, Minister Susi said.
“This is the first time that Indonesia has convened parties under MIST to handle possible infractions under the banner of transnational organized fisheries crimes,” she said. (tjs)
