640 tonnes of Reef Fish seized

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75m fishing boat seized
By CHRIS CARTER
14feb06
A FREIGHT ship with a fish cargo of almost 640 tonnes has been apprehended off the Northern Territory coast and is being escorted to Darwin.

Steel-hulled freighter Chen Long was boarded by Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Dubbo north-west of Cape Wessels.

Australian Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz said the apprehension should serve as a warning to illegal fishermen in Australia's coastal waters.

``This action sends a strong message to foreign vessels,'' Senator Abetz said yesterday.

``If you enter Australian waters you must have legitimate reasons to do so.''

The 75m vessel was spotted by Coastwatch aircraft on Sunday. It was not flying a flag of origin but investigations revealed it is registered in Panama.

The 18 crew members are believed to be of Chinese origin.

A search by HMAS Dubbo crew uncovered 639 tonnes of predominantly reef fish.

Authorities are yet to uncover where about 270 tonnes came from.

The vessel is suspected to be a mother ship.

Australian Fisheries management officers will further investigate the vessel when it reaches Darwin later this week to determine if illegal fishing charges will be laid.

[Argle]

They should just blow these pirates out of the water, cheaper and would send a much stronger message than putting them up in a nice Australian holding camp, fully catered for clean and tidy then given a free plane ride home > >
Bit of target practice I reckon, might make their mates think twice about coming to Australia in future.

Cheers and Beers

[MIKOS]

Open fire and sink there boats. [smiley=rifle.gif]

These people are raping our reefs in which we are looking after. >

Same as the japs killing whales. >

If they caught this one how many have got away with it?

Mike

[GBC]

coastwatch should be able to call for a low level 'reconnaisance' pass by an f111 doing orrr mach 1.5?

[fish2eat]

I'm amazed that with daily Coastwatch flights, they could accumulate this much before being caught. I hope they do NOT give the ship back.

[Fisher_Boats]

You can zoom down on your house on google earth...... but they can't see boats where there are large amounts of fish being taken off reefs
Lucky they didn't have the bamboo poles out or they'd be gone

[snakecatcher]

One down how many more to go? Problem is that all the buggers on the boats are poor peasants paid a pittance whilst the big boys sit happily offshore reaping the profits. They don't care if a small fishing boat gets confiscated as it just a cost of doing business to them.

Australia is an easy target as it has a huge coastline and limited resources so if the government is serious about stopping illegal fishing then they need to invest more into solving the problem. You would think it would be possible to link real time satelite coverage into a computer and have the computer check the images for illegal boats - once found they could be tracked and apprehended (or have I been watching too many spy movies?)

[Fisher_Boats]

Mate I'm sure they could do something, they can plant bombs through windows

Maybe there's more to it all then we know

They are chartering private vessells and patroling the green zones on the reef and that's costing them a fortune.

[harry_h01]

In my previous role, I was involved in putting forward the Coast Watch Tender for Northern Australian Waters.

The tending included live satellite coverage that could trace ships over days. The system linked all the data together and you could see the movement of ships for weeks if required.

the outcome - To expensive

The government would prefer to have people in planes looking with their eyes. Unfortunately, the planes can only fly 8hours a day, had a limited radius, and were restricted by weather conditions.

So the question is, doesn't the Government see value in our northern reefs to layout a decent amount of money to get better coverage.

Just my thoughts.

Harry

[snakecatcher]

Governments never seem to look at the larger picture - yes I suspect the live satelite coverage is expensive to setup but I am sure it would pay for itself as
a) you wouldn't need to have planes up in the air chewing up fuel simply looking around for boats - they could focus their efforts on capturing them.
b) How much is a sustainable fishing industry worth to the Australian economy - billions probably. How can we maintain a sustainable fishing industry when you have mongrels like the ones with 670 tonnes of illegal fish onboard ripping the guts out of it. You can bet this find is just the tip of the iceberg.

Come on Costello spend some of the surplus billions (which came out of our pockets in the first place) and get things fixed - health, education and invest some in the future of Australia rather than the pathetic "Future Fund" which is only there to pay the huge superannuation cost of pollies and other public servants.

Enough ranting - off fishing.

[fish2eat]

I'm sure they budget to lose a few dozen leaky old wooden hulks + crew every year, but start capturing 75Metre steel mother ships and the economics won't be the same

[szopen]

fish2eat,

My thoughts exactly.

Alhough I belive that confiscating and damaging the small boats if done on a large enough scale would put financial hurt on the operations it is the large mother ships (worth a lot of money) that should be targeted.

From the other thread it seems that this was an operation run by a Chinese syndicate and if you realize that these people are not doing this out of any malice but for pure economic reasons the solution is to make it an unprofitable business and they will go somewhere else.

[Toppy]

Hey Col_s looks like we watched the same show on 60min's. I was gobb smacked when that patrol boat persued the illegal fisherman for so long & was told to call it off because of the sticks poking out the side & it was too dangerous.
It might be a bit harsh for me to say but I thought when we send armed defence people to protect Australia they should be capable of boarding a boat one way or another. To me that show made a joke of us & our defence people.
When is Australia going to tuffen up in these situations? >

To answer a question asked earlier about what happens to the boats/ships! They give the the actual owner the opportunity to claim ownership & buy back the vessel. Now one would think the owner would surely blaim the skipper for his actions & then ask for his boat back as he was not responsable.
I know people have to work & eat but there are 101 different jobs out there to achieve this so I dont except it as an excuse when people stuff there own countries & then RAPE ours just to make a dollar.

I apologise for the sermon guys but this topic makes my blood boil, these fish stocks belong to you and me & I dont take kindly to people stuffing up Australia for future generations.
Ah...... that feels better getting it of my chest!
cheers
Toppy

[mickstar001]

Agree with you all - however have one more point - blow em up >

[roz]

This government has to increase funding for coastal surveilance.

I also wonder if that vessel, isn't just the tip of the iceberg. Also the chance of exotic pests and disease being brought along with them.

I'm stating the bleeding obvious I know, but it just makes me so annoyed.

Roz