Mysterious disappearance: The MV Dai Cat 06 cargo ship that went missing after leaving Perak on Dec 23. Its last contact was on Jan 1.
JOHOR BARU: A Malaysia-registered cargo ship with five crewmen on board has been missing for over a week, says the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
Johor MMEA director First Admiral Nurul Hizam Zakaria said the vessel, which was carrying metal pipes worth about RM726,000, left Kampung Acheh, Perak, on Dec 23 and was supposed to reach Kuching, Sarawak, on Dec 31.
“We received the information on Monday after the ship’s agent made a police report.
“The last location of the ship was detected on Jan 1 through the Automatic Identification System.
“The ship was then in Indonesian waters and about 0.2 nautical miles from Johor waters,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Nurul Hizam said there were three Indonesians and two Malaysians, between the ages of 20 and 57, on board.
“At 10.42pm on Monday, the Malaysia Mission Control Centre and Singapore Police Operation Command Centre detected an emergency from the ship.
“The SOS signal came from a location about 30 nautical miles northwest of Pemangkat, Indonesia,” he added.
Asked if it was possible that the ship was taken by pirates, he said MMEA do not want to speculate.
“But anything could happen in the sea,” he said, adding that MMEA had contacted Indonesian and Singaporean authorities to help search for the ship.
On a separate matter, Nurul Hizam said MMEA detained four vessels in eastern Johor waters on Monday for illegally transferring fuel and illegal anchoring.
He said two of the vessels were detained between 10.50am and 11.30am.
“The two tankers were detained at about 32 nautical miles east of Tanjung Sedili for illegally transferring fuel.
“One of the tankers was registered in Penang and had 10 crewmen on board, from Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.
“The other one was a Panama-registered tanker with 18 crewmen from India and Pakistan,” he added.
He said some 7,000 metric tonnes of Marine Fuel Oil, worth RM24.5mil, was also seized for further investigations.
Nurul Hizam also said two other vessels were detained on the same day for illegally anchoring in Johor waters.
“The third vessel was detained at about 11.40am, about 11.9 nautical miles east of Tanjung Siang. There were 22 crewmen on the Australia-registered vessel, who are all from the Philippines.
“The fourth vessel was found illegally anchoring at about 12 nautical miles east of Tanjung Balau. The Zanzibar-registered vessel had five Indonesian crewmen,” he said.
All four vessels were seized while their ship captains were brought to the Tanjung Sedili maritime zone for questioning.
The cases will be investigated under Section 491B (1)(K) of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 for illegally transferring fuel from ship to ship and under Section 491B (1)(L) for anchoring illegally.
Over the past two years, Johor MMEA has detained a total of 172 vessels for illegal anchoring through its Jangkar Haram operation.
