GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) arrested 13 local crew members, in two fishing boats, carrying out illegal fishing activities using modified nets (pukat lohong) in the state’s waters.
Its acting director, Maritime Commander S. Nak Rong said the two fishing boats were detained at a position of 0.4 nautical miles northwest of Pulau Tikus at 12.10 am today, as a result of public information.
“The enforcement boat detected the two local fishing boats in the area and found 13 men, aged 22 to 52, on the boats using the modified fishing nets,“ he said in statement today.
“From this number, there were six local crew members on the first boat and seven local crew members on the second boat.”
He said all of them were arrested because they were suspected of breaching the conditions of a valid licence under Section 8(b) of the Fisheries Act 1985, which was the use of fishing equipment (modified nets) not registered in the licence book. –Bernama