Four Sri Lankan fishing boats apprehended by India
February 21, 2010 08:47 am
Indian Coast Guard ship Sarang apprehended three Sri Lankan fishing boats from near Ramayapatnam and another Coast Guard ship Priyadarshini apprehended one fishing boat from near Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh coast in the last couple of days.
An official release said the Coast Guard
launched an extensive anti-poaching operation in the sea adjoining Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh coasts where large scale fishing activity by Sri Lankan
poachers was noticed.
On seeing the Coast Guard ships the poachers
tried to flee towards the open sea. While Sarang apprehended three boats, the
Priyadarshini apprehended one boat.
The vessels were illegally engaged in fishing in Indian waters.
15
crew members
A total of 15 Sri Lankan crew were on
board.
The apprehended Sri Lankans were from
Matara/Dondra area and Trincomalee district of Sri Lanka, the release said.
The boats were equipped with GPS, radar
and long range high frequency communication gadgets, which posed a very high
security risk, for the country, according to the official release.
3,775
kg of fish seized
The authorities seized 3,775 kg of fish from the seized boats.
With the apprehension of the four boats, the Coast Guard had apprehended 13 boats with 65 fishermen, 13,620 kg of fish this month and 70 boats with 357 fishermen and 47,545 kg of fish in the last six months, the release added.
The Hindu
