THE Sarawak Coast Guard has taken delivery of another three locally built patrol boats, bringing the number of its fast patrol craft of that class to six.

The delivery was accepted by Premier Abang Johari Openg in a ceremony in Miri today.

Abang Johari said there was no time overrun, no cost overrun, and no quality issue encountered in the RM73.2 million project for the three 25-metre water jet propelled island-class boats built by Sarawak Slipways Sendirian Berhad in its Miri yard.

The premier said the state government in its 2020 budget had allocated RM90 million for such purchases.

The Sarawak Coast Guard, formed on April 7, 2021, started off with the small but agile 11m interceptor rigid inflatable boats and surplus Marine police patrol boats to protect and secure areas along the state’s coastline.

The areas include the eight marine parks: Luconia Shoals National Park, Tanjung Datu, Talang Satang, Santubong, Bruit, Similajau, Miri-Sibuti Coral Reefs National Park, and the Limbang Mangrove National Park.

The eight marine parks cover an area of 1.2 million ha.

The premier said the Sarawak Coast Guard’s patrol areas would include the world’s longest artificial reef – the 785km reef ball off Mukah in central Sarawak – and in future the carbon capture, utilisation, and storage sites in abandoned oil and gas wells offshore.

The artificial reef has been certified by the Reef Ball Foundation, an international non-profit foundation whose mission is to rehabilitate and protect global ocean ecosystems through the development and use of ecologically sound reefs and related systems. 

Abang Johari said since fishermen in Mukah, Saribas, and Lawas reported a 3-fold increase in catches around the reef balls, it had attracted trawlers fishing illegally in those areas. – July 18, 2023.