Turtle Smugglers Nabbed
Kota Kinabalu: Marine police on Monday arrested 19 Chinese nationals who had been poaching Green and Hawksbill turtles near Mantanani Island, off Kota Belud, for over a week.
Although the police only found 78 turtles, all dead except for six, on the boat, it is believed that the fishermen, from Hainan, China, had caught more as they were seen chucking several turtles overboard when being chased by the marine police team.
The team spotted the vessel about 18 nautical miles northwest of Mantanani Island while carrying out “Ops Coral” about 11.20am, but managed to stop it only after a chase lasting about 30 minutes.
“They were determined to escape and rammed into our vessel twice,” State Marine Police Operations Chief, DSP Robert Salisip, told reporters here Monday night.
“The fishermen were actually caught catching turtles,” he said.
He said the group, aged between 16 and 58, told police they left Hainan on March 15, arrived in Sabah waters on March 19 and had been poaching off Mantanani Island until their arrest.
“The fishermen came to the area specifically for the turtles. I believe we had one case in 2004 when we detained a group of fishermen also for poaching turtles in Sabah waters. We believe the Chinese nationals were from the same company or origin,” he pointed out.
The operation was mounted early Monday after the police received complaints from the public about fish-bombing activities, Robert added.
Four crewmen were arrested on a smaller vessel, he said, as they had left to scour another area for turtles when their tugboat abandoned them after being spotted by the police.
It took the police more than eight hours to tow the boat to the city jetty here due to choppy seas.
And only when the marine personnel started unloading the Green and Hawksbill turtles, which are protected species, did they find the six live reptiles, much to their amazement.
City Police Chief, ACP Ku Chin Wah said the police would hand over the live turtles to the relevant authorities for further action.
Robert said the police would hand over investigations, framed under the Fisheries Act 1985 and Wildlife Enactment, to the Fisheries Department.
Meanwhile, in the same operation, the marine police detained six men, including foreigners, for suspected fish-bombing about three hours later.
Robert said they seized four detonators, a bottle containing baja urea (ammonium nitrate) and about 100kg of suspected bombed fish in their boat.
He said the suspects, from the Mantanani Island, were aged between 20 and 50.
Also present was Acting City Marine Police Commanding Officer, ASP Husaini Zainal Abidin.
via: Daily Express