MALAYSIAN Maritime Enforcement Agency confiscated a foreign pump boat and its crew of four suspected of blast fishing, also known as fish bombing, near Pulau Lankayan waters in Sandakan, Sabah.

Operation Deputy Director Maritime Commander Mohd Khairulanuar Abd Majid said the authorities were tipped off by a report from the conservation group, Sugud Islands Marine Conservation Area.

“Our men on patrol duty checked the boat around 5pm yesterday some 2.2 nautical miles from the West coast of Lankayan Island. 

“They found five bottles believed to be filled detonators, fuse, lighter and a barrel with around 50kg of fish inside,” he said in a statement today.

The four crew members also had no identification documents on them and are believed to be Philippines nationals, he said.

The four were arrested under Section 27 of the Fisheries Act for using a prohibited fishing method.

The men and the pump boat have since been brought to the Maritime Sandakan Jetty for further investigation. – June 15, 2017.