SIBU: The fishing community in Sarawak is increasingly worried about the repeated presence of foreign fishing vessels in state waters.
They are said to be freely encroaching state waters without effective control, thus affecting the community’s safety and source of income.
Sarawak Fishing Vessel Association (SFVA) Chairman, Harry Tan Joo Seng, said activities carried out by Vietnamese fishermen are getting more widespread in almost all of the state’s waters.
“Fishermen are very worried. These foreign vessels enter at will, take our marine products and leave without restrictions.
“This situation makes us wonder how they can operate so easily,” he said during a media conference here today.
According to Tan, failure to deal with such encroachment also raises suspicions about the possibility of information leakage.
“When enforcement operations are carried out, they immediately disappear. This seems to show that they know when patrols are being carried out.
“Fishermen are increasingly distrustful of the level of monitoring at sea,” he claimed.
He also claimed that these foreign vessels operate day and night, thus affecting the catch of local fishermen.
Tan urged the government and relevant enforcement agencies to address this issue more effectively.
“It has happened many times, and this time we are exposing it so that our enforcement agencies can be stricter in controlling our waters,” he said.
He also urged the ministry concerned to intervene to ensure the issue is addressed immediately.
