One illegal fishing vessel intercepted every 12 hours in a week off WA’s coast

Illegal fishing off the coast of WA has spiked with one boat being intercepted every 12 hours in just a week as the local industry says the Federal Government is only picking up a fraction of what is in Australian waters. Between July 1 and October 3, 85 foreign fishing vessels were caught by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Maritime Border Command. Fifteen of these were detected doing the wrong thing from September 27 to October 3. A further two boats were turned away over the next five days. WA Fishing Industry Council CEO Darryl Hockey is calling on the Government to ramp up surveillance in the area, saying many more boats from Indonesia were getting away without penalty. “In this day and age with satellite imagery, drones and all sorts of other things, perhaps there are more economic ways of being able to monitor this than actually having to have a big ship going out there with a crew and catching these guys one at a time,” Mr Hockey said. “We’ve been getting feedback from some of our fishermen out there and what they say is the Indonesians are bringing down a mother ship and are parking it just inside international waters. “They have a number of smaller boats that come out from that and intrude into Australian waters. They fish actively through that area and then go back to the mother ship to unload. If they see anybody coming, they probably radio around and say let’s scarper.” Of the 87 boats intercepted this financial year, catch and equipment were confiscated on all but one vessel, eight boats were seized and destroyed, and a crew of four foreign fishers were prosecuted in Darwin Court. The West Australian can also reveal that authorities stopped 112 illegal fishing boats off the WA coast in the past financial year, 311 in the 12 months before it and 84 for the 2020/2021 financial year. The Rowley Shoals, Ashmore Reef and Scott Reef are all spots off the Broome coast that are targetted by foreign fishers. They typically go for sea cucumbers, which are found on the sea floor of these pristine areas. An AFMA spokeswoman said authorities had sighted an increase in foreign fishing vessels in the Kimberley Marine Park in the past three months. “Australian authorities continue to conduct routine aerial surveillance and patrols, including conducting targeted operations, to detect and intercept illegal fishers and undertake enforcement actions,” the spokeswoman told The West. “Australian authorities continue to review and explore patrol and surveillance options to identify and intercept foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in Australian waters.” Maritime operations in WA are the largest for the Border Force, covering more than 20,000km of coastline — from Christmas Island in the north to Esperance in the south.