Crew of Chinese fishing trawler to be charged
The crew of a Chinese fishing trawler that has been seized on suspicion of being in South African waters illegally will be charged for contravening the country’s marine laws.
The vessel was among nine spotted over the course of last week in Durban, Port St Johns and Cape Recife, raising suspicion they were fishing illegally.
A patrol boat was dispatched to round them up and escort them to Saldanha Bay, but eight vessels took off, prompting the Navy to be sent after them.
The Fisheries Department says a search was done by the police, SARS and Home Affairs on the seized boat yesterday at Cape Town Harbour.
Officials didn’t find any fish on board, but there was fishing equipment as well as tobacco and cigarettes which SARS has fined them for.
There were also dogs found aboard the vessels which authorities say were being kept in inhumane conditions.
Spokesperson Bomikazi Molapo says the nine crew members are going to be charged under the Marine Living Resources Act for having entered the South African Exclusive Economic Zone without a valid permit, among other offences.
"We are going to charge for, number 1, being on our waters without the necessary permits. We are going to charge them for not following local instructions from our compliance officers and we are going to charge them for switching off their lights and turning off their tracking devices which is also a violation," she said.
The crew claims to have been en route to the Democratic Republic of Congo where they apparently have permission to fish.
The vessel, which has been identified as 'Lu Huang Yuan Yu 186', will remain at Cape Town Harbour.
Its gear, equipment, stores and cargo have been confiscated.
Molapo says it's also been established that all nine Chinese vessels belong to the same company.
(File photo)