Kamis
SURABAYA, Indonesia (Pacific Scoop/Antara/Pacific Media Watch): The Indonesian navy’s Eastern Fleet Command has sunk three Philippines fishing boats at the naval base in Sorong, West Papua, for alleged poaching in Melanesian waters.
“The three boats entered the Indonesian marine territory by flying the Indonesian flag and using Indonesian names on them,” the commander of the Eastern Fleet Command, Rear Admiral Darwanto, said.
In an official statement received by Antara in Surabaya, West Java, the commander stated that the Indonesian flag and names meant they had some intention to commit “illegal acts”.
“The destruction of the three fishing boats by sinking was based on the chairman of Sorong District Court No. 02/Pen.Pid/2015/PN.SON dated February 17, 2015,” Darwanto said.
The destruction of the boats on Wednesday was also in accordance with the Law on Fisheries 45 of 2009, Article 69, Paragraph 4.
Of the three boats sunk, two were foreign fishing boats and one was an Indonesian fishing boat. The first boat was Jebo-05 with Captain Ariston from the Philippines.
The Philippines-flagged fishing vessel weighed 50 gt with a crew of 21, all of them Filipinos.
West Papua waters
The ship had sailed from the Philippines to a fishing ground in the waters of West Papua province.
“The violations committed by the ships crew included plying undocumented vessels. When we intercepted them, the ships were unloading tuna,” Darwanto noted.
Another foreign fishing boat Tri Rezeki-09 had Indonesian citizen Didik as the captain. This Philippines-flagged vessel weighed 50gt and had 17 Filipino crew members.
“The fishing boats had sailed from Balot to a fishing ground in West Papua province waters. They also did not have the documents of the ship,” Darwanto added.
The third ship was Rajah Mujur-01 with Dhedi S. Dumas from Indonesia as its captain.
“The boat weighed 40gt with 30 crew members: two of them were Indonesians and the remaining were Filipinos,” he said, adding that the ship had sailed from the Philippines to West Papua province waters and did not have documents.
These three fishing boats were intercepted and seized by the personnel of the Indonesian Ship, Slamet Riyadi-352, in the waters of West Papua on January 27, 2015.
Source: Antara
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