Navy Fires Rifle As Illegal Boat Tally Rises To 19

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday March 15, 1991

By CHIPS MACKINOLTY

DARWIN: The crew of HMAS Dubbo has managed a record catch of 11 Indonesian fishing boats which, along with three other boats, are to be handed over to the Australian Fisheries Service for possible charges related to illegal fishing in Australian waters.

The boat seizures in the Arafura Sea, north of Arnhem Land, in the past week, were not without incident.

"Two groups of boats tried to make a run for it and we had to fire shots over them from a rifle," Lieutenant Commander Bob Heginbothom of the Dubbo said yesterday over a radio-telephone link.

Last night HMAS Geelong boarded another five boats inside the Australian fishing zone, bringing the count of boats seized by the Navy over four days to 19.

"They were mostly after shark for the shark fins, which can get $90 a kilogram on the world market," Lieutenant Commander Heginbothom said.

"However, two of the boats we apprehended also had dolphins, one of which had been freshly killed."

His main complaint was a lack of sleep for him and his 24-man crew.

"We caught the first one about 1.30 on Monday morning. We didn't get much sleep for the next 36 hours and we have had precious little since then."

The first boat was boarded about six nautical miles inside the zone, and the other 10 boats in the haul were picked up in the zone over the next 16 hours.

"The second group of boats was spotted by our chief engineer about four in the morning and by 10 o'clock we had six boats," he said.

"At one stage, we had only 12 crew members on board - the other half of the crew were in boarding parties all over the place trying to get them to rendezvous with us," he said.

The 65 to 70 Indonesian fishermen were all in long-line fishing boats, with fishing lines up to 4.8 kilometres long.

Lieutenant Commander Heginbothom said that most appeared to have been in the area for only two or three days, and to have come from the island of Dobo in Indonesia.

All but three of the Indonesian boats apprehended by the Dubbo are travelling under their own steam, and are being escorted to Darwin.

They are expected there late today or early tomorrow.