Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Aceh marine police have seized a Malaysian-flagged fishing boat and arrested four Myanmar crews and the captain for alleged illegal fishing in the Indonesian waters of Melaka Straits.

An official of Aceh marine police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Sukamat, said here on Tuesday that the fishing boat was detained on April 16 at 04.21 am local time.

"The boat was named KM KHF 1742. Before it was arrested, the Malaysian-flagged boat had been monitored," Sukamat said, adding that the illegal fishing boat has used a trawl.

The boat tried to escape when the police patrolling boat approached them.

"After it was stopped, the police checked the ships document. But it did not have a fishing license in the Indonesian waters. The ship and its crews were brought to Kuala Nangsa," he noted.

The ships captain Nay Hun Tun, 37, and three crews, namely Min Win San, 26, Aye Myint Tun, 27, and Nai Min Kyaw, 26, were all Burmese.

"At first, they tried to greet Indonesian police with Bahasa Indonesia and acted as if they are Indonesian fishermen. But after further investigation, the police found that they were Burmese," he added.

The police have also seized some 100 kilogram of fish, a set of trawl, GPS, radio, ships document, and a passport.

The case would be handled by the maritime and fishery monitoring post in Belawan.

"The illegal fishing has violated law 31/2004 on fishery," Sukamat remarked. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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