Illegal Fishing Vessels

A team was sent out on Tuesday and today to continue assessment of the situation.

The vessels were towed out of Fairfax Harbour on Monday by the PNG Defence Force Navy vessel HMPNGS Buna to a sinking site outside Port Moresby. 

However, due to bad weather, they were left on a reef off the coast of Fisherman Island.

The destruction was organised by the National Fisheries Authority and planned to be carried out by the PNGDF Navy's explosive ordinance and diving team.

A judicial official will be present to witness the destruction.

The HMPNGS Buna will tow the two illegal vessel to their sinking site outside Port Moresby.

The vessels were used by 50 Vietnamese fishermen that had been fishing in PNG waters off Budibidi Island in Milne Bay Province on December 22, 2016.

They were apprehended by the PNG Defence Force naval ship HPNGS Seadler.

A total of 77 drums of beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers) were found on board the foreign vessels.

He made the call to Fisheries Minister, Mao Zeming, today in Parliament House following the seizing of illegal fishing vessels and the confiscation of a sizeable quantity of beche-de-mer.

Wesley said recent discoveries in the illegal collection of the bech-de-mer has raised suspicions of alleged collusion between an NFA officer (named) and operators of the illegal vessels.

He raised a number of factors, which he said raised suspicions and they include: