PETALING JAYA • A Vietnamese fishing vessel was detained for encroaching into Malaysian waters despite attempts by a Vietnamese enforcement agency boat to stop the local authorities from effecting the arrest.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the boat from the Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance made dangerous turns near the MMEA vessel, KM Langkawi, which was responding to the encroachment by the fishing boat.
"The incident occurred at 9.48am, around 167 nautical miles north-east of Tanjong Mat Amin, Terengganu, last Wednesday.
"During the incident, a Vietnamese enforcement agency boat tried to prevent MMEA officers from arresting the fishermen by trying to get in between the seized boat.
"They also made dangerous turnings in front of KM Langkawi," an MMEA statement said.
"They did so after KM Langkawi refused to release the seized fishing vessel, which was found to have committed a heavy crime by encroaching into Malaysian waters to fish.
"However, the fishing boat was successfully seized by KM Langkawi despite the attempts," said MMEA deputy director-general of operations Ibrahim Mohamed in the statement yesterday.
Three Vietnamese fishermen were arrested and 9,000 litres of fuel as well as fishing equipment amounting to RM700,000 (S$230,000) were seized.
Both the boat and its crew were sent to the Kemaman maritime zone pier last Thursday.
The fishermen are being investigated for operating without a licence from the Fisheries Department and for not having valid identification documents.
"The MMEA has informed Wisma Putra (Malaysia's Foreign Ministry) of the incident," said Mr Ibrahim.
He added that the Vietnamese defence attache had been contacted but was unable to attend a meeting on the issue.
The attache would instead be meeting a representative from the MMEA operations department this week.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK