Nine Indonesian nationals apprehended off Western Australia saw their catch and gear seized, their boat destroyed and themselves handed penalties by a Darwin court, before being deported.
They had been intercepted fishing near Augustus Island in Western Australia for sea cucumber. 350kg of catch worth an estimated A$30,000 was found on board, along with 175 kg of salt used for preserving catches. The boat’s crew were transferred to Darwin and their boat destroyed at sea.
In court, the boat’s skipper was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three weeks to be served concurrently. Two other crewmen with prior records were also sentenced to three-week terms of imprisonment, taking time already held in detention into account.
The remaining crew were released on undertakings to be of good behaviour for a period of twelve months and all nine have been deported from Australia.
AFMA, in partnership with Maritime Border Command (MBC), a multi-agency task force including Australian Border Force and Australian Defence Force, continues to target illegal foreign fishing, while the Australian authorities also use other measures to combat illegal fishing at its source, including the delivery of public information campaigns within Indonesian fishing communities, the distribution of educational material, targeted social media campaigns, and proactive engagement.
