Encroachment of 'No Take Zone'

Posted by: Sofia Johari

22 October 2009, Pulau Maliangin proposed 'No Take Zone'. It was a beautiful sunny day (very unusual these days to have a calm sunny day at the sea even for a half day). After sending off Suzie and Asri to Karakit, Pulau Banggi for a meeting with religous leaders there, we (Robecca, Irwan, Pakcik Damsek and me) went to Pulau Maliangin Besar to meet the community to prepare them for the donors visit tomorrow 23rd October. While there, Ngit, one of the not many male living on the island informed us that there's a fishing vessel that has been lingering around the proposed no take zone for almost a month collecting pearl oysters. Hearing this we immediately took the boat 'Mameng' to take a look.
Approaching the vessel
Robecca calling for back up from Jabatan Perikanan while Irwan is checking the details of the vessels and licence
When we got there, Robecca who is a trained Honorary Wildlife Warden (we have 2 HWW at that time; Pakcik Damsek and Robecca) introduced ourselves and asked the vessels' captain to introduce themselves and for their fishing & vessel licence. Findings: vessel licence is owned by a local and the 16 non-local crews permit were all endorsed & approved by Jabatan Perikanan Sabah. Fishing permit was only for the West Coast of Sabah and by being in Kudat area they are encroaching.
The harvested Gorgonions
Robecca and Irwan onboard the vessel
The Vietnamese crews
The vessel was well equipped (GPS, Echo sounder and Hundreds of gallons of fuel! on board). The 16 crews including the captain were all Vietnamese and communication was not easy. While the captain was talking to Robecca (sometimes using sign language) the crews were busy chopping off the leafs of Gorgonions (black corals) that they harvested by diving with compressor at 30 - 50 m depth. We also noticed that there were divers coming up with more Gorgonions. Upon seeing us, the crews onboard made some kind of signal to warn the divers below about the danger (WWF staffs) on board. Being notified, the divers dropped their harvest and went up empty handed.
Location of vessel
We called for Jabatan Perikanan Kudat to come and assist us in handling the situation, however unfortunately their enforcement boat does not have fuel on that day. We then reported the situation to the police department in Karakit, Pulau Banggi. They immediately act on it by sending out their enforcement team. While waiting for the police, we tried to confiscate the Gorgonions to discourage the harvesters, however they resist and realizing potential hostile situation we decided to leave the area and did not wait for the police force to come.
Some Vietnamese stuffs onboard
Gallons and gallons of fuel
Soon after we went to Karakit Police Department to report the incident and give information on the vessel. The officer in charge on that day was very helpful and co-operative and confident that the police team he sent out will be able to catch the vessel. According to the locals the Gorgonions harvested from Kudat will be transported to Semporna where bigger Vietnamese vessels pick them up and send them to Vietnam for sell and processed into valuable accessories.

We manage to confiscate some harvest

Will update you all on the progress of this story when we get more information on what happen after we left the vessel and the police station :)

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