By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, May 29: A foreign sea vessel with 16 crew members on board was detained by Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Miri, on Tuesday afternoon for illegal fishing off Kuala Miri waters.
The vessel was detected illegally fishing at about 41 nautical miles off Kuala Miri around 1.30pm.
The crew is being detained under the Fisheries Act 1985 and Immigration Act 1959/63.
A total of 6,000kg of marine products worth RM500,000 was seized.
According to Miri MMEA enforcement head, Captain Mohd Fauzi Othman, the Vietnam-registered vessel was traced by the enforcement team upon receiving reports on the vessel’s whereabouts earlier on.
He added, the boat’s Vietnamese crew aged 16 to 46-years-old including the skipper, was arrested.
Preliminary investigations revealed that all of the crew members did not possess any valid identification documents. — DayakDaily
