The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) arrested 32 Vietnamese fishermen and seized four boats during Ops Permai 1/06 last Wednesday and Thursday.
About three tons of marine products were found on each vessel.
Bintulu District 12 maritime enforcement chief Commander Sazali Mohamad told reporters yesterday that this was the biggest out of eight seizures for this year.
We are expecting more arrests soon due to good weather for fishing and there will be an increase of foreign fishing vessels that will try to enter Malaysian waters, especially during this cuttlefish season.
For that reason, MMEA will enhance its patrolling operations in strategic areas to combat trespassing and illegal fishing activities by foreign vessels.
The value for each fishing vessel seized was between RM500,000 and RM1 million.
Sazali said all crew members and skippers arrested did not have identification documents and have since been remanded for 14 days.
On Wednesday around 10.40pm, he said personnel on the KM Setia patrol vessel noticed a trawler (BV8558TS) about 200 nautical miles off Tanjung Kidurong and detained it along with 16 Vietnamese fishermen.
Approximately four nautical miles from where the first fishing boat was detained, another boat with the registration number BV99969TS was successfully detected pulling trawlers. As a result of the inspection around 11.33pm, another three crew members, also from Vietnam, were arrested, said Sazali.
The following day, two trawlers (BV4968TS and BV0126TS) were seized together with 13 crew members around 11.40pm about 118 nautical miles from Tanjung Kidurong.
Lt Commander Maritime Haris Fadilah led the team of 24 MMEA enforcement officers for the operations.
Sazali added that since MMEA intensified its patrols, foreign vessels have started to distance themselves to over 100 nautical miles from shore to avoid detection.
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