The vessels, caught on Wednesday and Thursday included four flying the Vietnamese flag and two flying the Philippines flag, acting Director General of Supervision of Marine and Fishery Resources Sjarief Widjaja said here on Friday.
Sjarief said the two Philippine boats - KM FBca JUSTINE (4 GT) with 8 crewmen and KM FBca SNATOP (5 GT) with 8 crewmen were caught in the exclusive economic zone off Sulawesi Sea on June 15.
The two boats - all with Philippine crewmen - have been forced to turn to land at Bitung, North Sulawesi to face legal investigations.
On the next day, two boats of the Fishing Vessel Supervisor, caught four fishing boats flying Vietnamese flag operating off Natuna, in the Riau Island Province.
The Vietnamese boats - the BV 5286 TS with a crew of 10 men, the BV 5295 TS with a crew of three men, the BV 9316 TS with a crew of two men and the BV 5352 TS with a crew of 26 men (26 ABK WNA Vietnam) were now detained at Natuna to face legal investigations.
The boats, all with Vietnamese crewmen , used trawl net which is also banned in the country.
The six boats brought the number of foreign fishing boats to 66 units caught by the Indonesian authorities on charge of illegal fishing. They included 41 Vietnamese boats, 16 Malaysian boats, 8 Philippines boats and a Thai boat.
Indonesia is seeking international agreement to declare illegal fishing as organized international crime through the International Conference on Crimes and Penal Judicial Court in Vienna.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
