Australia’s Maritime Border Command, a taskforce of the Australian Border Force (ABF), apprehended an illegal vessel together with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) this week west of Darwin in the Timor Sea.
The Indonesian vessel and its five crew had a quantity of reef fish on ice, two live reef fish and 25kg of bait on board when a boarding party from HMAS Broome and AFMA searched the vessel at a position 2.5 nautical miles inside the Australian EEZ.
The Indonesian vessel was hauling its gear when it was identified inside the Australian line. The vessel was escorted to Darwin and the five crew are facing further investigation by AFMA over possible breaches of Australian fisheries laws.
According to AFMA’s General Manager of Fisheries Operations, Peter Venslovas, incidents of foreign fishing vessels apprehended in Australian waters have fallen dramatically over the last ten years.
‘In the past 12 months only 14 illegal foreign fishing vessels were found operating in Australian waters, significantly down from the 350 plus vessels caught in one year just over a decade ago,’ he said, and commented that the crew in this latest incident remain n detention as the investigation is carried out.
‘The fate of the vessel will be determined in due course, which may involve destruction by incineration,’ Peter Venslovas said.
‘Vessels like this can take over a tonne of fish yet there was only a small quantity of catch on board, which indicates to us that we caught it before it could inflict more damage on Australia’s fish resources.’
