Ocean Sentry
Illegal trawling operators have resorted to a new technology to muffle the drones of engines when going to sea at night. They have installed a special gadget to suppress the engine sound until it is not audible even if at just a short distance away from the boats of fishermen.
Inshore fishermen found the new technology when a group of them sighted 14 trawling boats at Tanjung Tohor in Muar waters on Thursday night.
Fisherman Omar Atan, 51, of Sungai Balang, said 30 fishermen in 11 fishing boats almost rammed into the trawlers which were unlit and sailed in a fleet in silence about three nautical miles from the shore.
He said when confronted the boats left for international waters.
“In the past, fishermen could detect them at a distance when the engines roared loudly in the tranquility of the night. Now, the trawlers could move without any sound. This poses a great danger to us.”
He said the trawlers were licensed to operate 12 nautical miles from the shore between Batu Pahat and Pontian from 6am to 6pm and had to anchor in Batu Pahat by 6pm daily.
” We cannot understand how they can still operate at night in prohibited waters in Muar,” said Omar, who added he would volunteer to show the enforcement agencies the locations where the illegal trawlers operated and to nab them.
He said the trawling activities had flattened the seabed and damaged fish breeding grounds.
(From nst.com.my, Malaysia, by Chong Chee Seong)
