The seizure of an illegal fishing vas that has evaded capture multiple times is clearly a dear affair . But this latest arresthas made headlinesbecause the fishing vas was found to be carrying an astounding 30 kilometers ( 18 miles ) of gillnets .
The boat was detained in Indonesia , after having been go after around the Southern Ocean , where it was illegally fishing for a species of cod known as toothfish . It was doing this using up to 600 gillnets , which is awfully destructive and entirely indiscriminate as the maw in the netting are so ok that not much can escape it .
No one lie with how long the ship has been slip in and out of international waters for , but it has dodge capture from at least two other rural area in the past , where it was stay before escaping . In addition to the 600 illegal gillnets find on board , constabulary also discover eight unlike flags that they used to confuse authorities , including those from Sierra Leone , Togo , South Korea , Japan , and Namibia . It also turns out that it had alter its name at least six meter .
“ Navy ship Simeuleu conduct a ‘ stop , investigate and detain ’ operation on Friday and successfully seized the vessel , ” said Indonesia ’s Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti , accord toReuters .
This is not the first clock time that Indonesia has usurp illegal fishing vessels operating in their Ethel Waters . In fact , the area has destroyed century of boats since 2014 in ordination to protect their fisheries and fishing industry , include blowing up one monumental illegal toothfish boat that had operate on under at least 12 different names .
While Indonesia will likely destroy the boat , what will find to the crew is not know at the moment . fish for Antarctic toothfish using gillnets is illegal under theConvention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources , who govern such affair , but the gravy holder was formally “ homeless ” . The men on circuit board are Russian and Indonesian , although the latter miss any travel document and had been at sea for a long period without pay , making them efficaciously modern - day slave .
The practice of using trafficked people to man these boat is not , unfortunately , strange in this industry . According to investigations by Human Rights Watch , migratory fishermen from Southeast Asia are routinely trafficked onto sportfishing sauceboat and then prevented from pull up stakes , change employers , or from being pay minimum wage ( if they ’re being paid at all that is ) . So when it derive to charging these people – including the Russians – no one is quite sure what will come about .
