MERSING: Two local Class-C license fishing vessels with nine crew members on board were detained for violating the fishing regulations issued under their licenses.
They were apprehended at nine nautical miles or 16.68km east of Pulau Tinggi on Tuesday (Oct 14) at 1am during a joint operation codename Ops Mardof.
“The crew were two locals and seven Indonesians aged between 24 and 50,’’ Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Mersing Maritime Zone Maritime Commander Suhaizan Saadin said.
In a statement, he said the operation involved the MMEA Mersing Maritime Zone and the Mersing Fisheries Department.
“Investigation found that the fishermen had violated the regulations for trawling less than 12 nautical miles or 22.22km from the island,’’ added Maritime Commander Suhaizan.
He said the fishermen and both vessels were detained for committing the offences under the Fisheries Act 1985.
Maritime Commander Suhaizan said the fishermen and the boats were brought to the Teluk Gading Maritime Jetty to assist with the investigation.
A Class-C fishing license in Malaysia is for deep-sea commercial fishing boats that operate in specific offshore zones and the Fisheries Department manages these licenses.
For the Zone C fishing zone, the distance from shore is 12 to 30 nautical miles with commercial fishing vessels with a gross tonnage (GRT) of more than 40 tons.
The distance for the Zone C2 fishing zone is 30 nautical miles to the edge of Malaysia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) using deep-sea fishing vessels with a GRT of 70 tons or more.
