"These Thai fishermen will be deported as soon as possible, as who would feed them here? We are already overwhelmed with having them here just for a day," exclaimed West Acehs Maritime Affairs and Fisheries head office T Helmi in Meulaboh on Monday.
Previously, four of six foreign ships carrying 60 Thais and Myanmar nationals were arrested by a joint military-police team on Sunday, April 13.
The foreign fishermen were known to use fishing trawlers to fish at about eight miles from the West Aceh coastline.
Helmi explained that the Thai fishermens catch will be auctioned off as they fear the estimated 10 tons of fish cargo will rot and waste.
"The ships will also be auctioned off, but we will communicate in advance to the Thailand ambassador and the policy will be determined with the decision of the local government and police," Helmi added.
West Aceh district will continue to tighten controls in increasing the patrol volume by eight times a year, because the West Aceh territorial waters have an abundant fish volume and have always been the illegal fishing target.
Meanwhile, the West Aceh Traditional Fishermen Community, Kontan, Indra Jeumpa pointed out that the Thai fishing vessels weighs 65 gross tons with a payload capacity of 85 tons of fish/ship.
"So far, our fishermen have seen many foreign fishermen but they are afraid to approach or even to arrest them, we are hoping to tighten the monitoring efforts by the officials," Indra reiterated.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
