SANDAKAN: Foreigners are fishing in troubled waters, going by the unholy tactics deployed to increase their catch in the Malaysian waters.
FOR YOU: Mohd Amdan (left) gives his donation to one of handicapped children at the opening of community programme at Kampung Air. — Bernama photo
Initial investigations by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) have revealed that unscrupulous foreigners have resorted to deception to fish in local waters. The MMEA discovered that foreign vessels duplicated the registration numbers and colours of local fishing vessels to hoodwink the authorities into thinking they were local vessels.
Those were the new tactics of operators of foreign fishing vessels which the agency had recently uncovered, said MMEA director-general Datuk Mohd Amdan Kurish.
He said the tactics were aimed at confusing the Malaysian authorities to avoid inspection. “We are working hard to curb the problem of encroachment by foreign fishing vessels as such activities could affect the daily catch of the local fishermen,” he said when opening a community programme at Kampung Air here yesterday.
Mohd Amdan said that throughout MMEA’s enforcement activities in Sabah waters since early this year, 282 people were detained and 21 foreign fishing vessels seized for encroachment into Malaysian waters. — Bernama