The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has detained two foreign fishing boats and 13 Vietnamese for encroachment and illegal fishing in Malaysian waters.
Miri MMEA head Captain Md Fauzi Othman in a statement today said the two boats were detained at about 39 nautical miles from Miri at 1.01pm yesterday..
“Two out of six illegal foreign fishing boats were spotted at the location by the patrol team who were carrying out their routine patrol at the area.
“As soon as they realised that there was an enforcement team at the area, they tried to escape and released their fishing equipment into the waters to dispose of the evidence,” said Md Fauzi.
He added that after about 30 minutes chase, the MMEA patrol team managed to detain the two boats.
“Checks conducted on the two boats found 13 Vietnamese crew aged between 22 and 46. None of them had any identification documents and documents from the Fisheries Department to carry out fishing activities.”
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