Call to stop illegal fishing in Indigenous waters
By PETER ROWE
Northern Territory rangers have called for tougher penalties after Indonesian boats were spotted spotted fishing illegally in Australian waters last week.
Traditional owner groups want Federal government to intervene with more surveillance of the area and if caught, to destroy the boats.
Tthe Northern Land Council which represents traditional owners, is calling on Border Force and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to provide more resources to prevent the illegal fishing.
“There are big questions in regard to border security and biosecurity, where we’ve got the monkey pox, [tuberculosis] and the potential for foot and mouth and bird flu,” NLC chairman Matthew Ryan told the ABC.
“They should be burning the vessels because they are only going to come back again and again,” he said.
Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram, when asked about illegal fishing in Canberra this week, said his force was “putting in significant resources to address the issue”.
“It’s not a new problem, we’ve had spikes in illegal fishing in our waters previously and we’re using a range of tools to deal with it,” he said.
“We’re destroying vessels on water, we’re destroying catches, and I think there’s been 40 prosecutions by our fisheries people over the last three months.”
Illegal fishing is a growing issue in northern WA and NT waters.