Article: More fishing illegally in protected reef parks

Saturday June 13, 2009

MIRI: A marked increase in the plundering of marine life has been detected in protected coral reef parks in the South China Sea off the coast of Sarawak.

Illegal fishermen, both locals and foreigners, are making a beeline for these parks because they are rich in marine life.

In the past five months, the Maritime Enforcement Agency of the Prime Minister's Department had foiled 144 attempts by fishermen to harvest marine life in the protected zones off Miri Division, said the agency's northern Sarawak chief Capt Ismaili Bujang.

"We checked 544 vessels from January to May and detained 144 vessels for illegally fishing in the parks," he said yesterday.

''Yesterday, we seized a Vietnamese boat with eight crew members, aged between 15 and 47. They were caught in the Beting Patinggi Ali Reef about 105 miles (169km) offshore Miri.

''They were found to have harvested more than 300kg of fish from the protected reefs using trawler nets. We have seized their boat and cargo."

Capt Ismaili said his agency had compounded more than RM1mil worth of fishing gear and cargo from seven illegal fishing boats from Vietnam and China in the past five months.

He expected even more illegal fishing in the coming months because of the dry and calmer weather.

"We have stepped up enforcement patrols. We are checking not only fishing vessels, but also cargo vessels, tankers and tugboats," he said, adding that the Miri Division has four major coral reef parks.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 13 June 2009