As per media report an Indonesian fisherman was caught fishing illegally in Australian and was pleaded guilty. La Deke, 30, appeared in Darwin Magistrates Court on Monday charged with using a foreign boat for commercial fishing and possessing fishing equipment on a foreign boat.
According to the court the Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Bathurst, intercepted a foreign boat, named Sandiwarra, with five people on board in the Australian fishing zone near the Tiwi Islands early on the morning of September 3. Boat captain Deke failed to respond to warnings by the navy to stop the vessel. Then HMAS Bathurst had to take “evasive action” to avoid colliding with the fishing boat, before boarding the illegal vessel.
After probing the boat inside outside the officers had found about 25kg of shark fins, 30kg of fish, and up to 30 shark bodies on board the boat. The court heard Deke told officers he did not use a global positioning system (GPS) and believed he was still in Indonesian waters. But the prosecutors informed that the vessel had a GPS, as well as a compass and charts of the Timor and Arafura seas.
Deke had later said he switched the GPS off before going to sleep, and that the tide had carried the boat into Australian waters overnight. The married father-of-two, who worked as a fisherman all his life and had never attended school, was fined $16,000. Magistrate Hugh Bradley said Deke would be sent back to Indonesia and, if he failed to pay the fine within 28 days, would be sent to jail if he ever returned to Australia.
