Ministry, Dept told to come clean
(Daily Express) Kota Kinabalu: The controversy over the 10 Vietnamese longline vessels has barely died down when three more boats manned entirely by Vietnamese crew have been brought in by a new company, raising fresh queries as to whether the State Fisheries Department – and Ministry – is really serious in protecting Sabah's marine resources.
The boats, smaller this time, were seen anchored in Likas Bay off Tanjung Lipat Coastal Highway since Wednesday.
Since Vietnamese fishermen are particularly fond of catching sea reptiles like turtles and longlines are excellent for landing larger fish like sharks, tunas and turtles, the Ministry and Fisheries Department should be frank about what these vessels are doing in our waters, a member of the public who alerted the Daily Express, said.
"Can the Fisheries Director tell us what these three new boats are, what gears do they have and are they similarly waiting to be licensed for longline fishing?" asked the concerned rakyat who wished to remain anonymous.
"Longline fishing must be very feasible off SabahÉor else why would any body bring in even more boats," she noted.
"In particular, we would like to know what the 10 longline fishing boats have been catching since they have been operating for a month by now," she said.
"Longlines if they are really long and stretching for miles, are very efficient in catching sharks, turtles and tunas. Of course they will always say they are targeting tunas but who is to know exactly what they are actually landing so far out there," she asked.
" Unanswered questions include: is there a mother ship waiting to receive the catches? Since we have been assured officially that the boats return to KK to unload their catches, fisheries officials should have no problem telling the public what they have been catching," she said.
"If not, where are they operating and where do the fish go?"
"Every other country like Australia, Japan, etc, zealously protect their fisheries resources with speedy arrests. So it doesn't make sense for us to bring in foreign vessels and nationals into our waters just to catch fish," she pointed out.
"The bottom line is whether Sabahans will benefit from all this," she noted.
"If the Fisheries Department think it fit to license these boats manned by foreign nationals to fish in Sabah's waters, the benefits to the people of Sabah should be overwhelming, in terms of more employment from processing the catches locally and in terms of tax revenue if they are exported," she added.
