The state Maritime Enforcement Agency has announced that it is ready to scuttle all 32 foreign fishing vessels that were confiscated off the Terengganu coast, over the last couple of years. Syed Mohd Fuzi Syed Hassan, chief of the agency, informed that 32 vessels seized during operations would be turned into artificial reefs by submerging into shorelines close to Redang, Perhentian, Kapas and Susu Dara islands.
He added that these vessels will be submerged in phases so that they would be able to function as artificial reefs to promote the growth of marine lives. He also told that the agency faced space constraint to moor the seized vessels at its wharf as the number of seizure kept escalating with the intense operations embarked by the agency, recently. He explained that the last year alone 26 foreign fishing vessels were seized for encroaching into Malaysian waters.
Syed Mohd Fuzi noted that the number of vessels confiscated had in 2008 had increased 70 percent compared to the achievement made by the agency in 2006 and 2007. He added that the Vietnamese fishermen were the highest numbers of encroachers followed by Thai fishermen. He praised the success of the agency in thwarting the illegal fishing activities in Malaysian shores to local fishermen.
