South Africa has intercepted four Chinese-flagged fishing vessels that entered its territorial waters without authorisation.
According to Fisheries and Environment Minister Willie Aucamp, police and fisheries control officers placed the ships under guard at the Port of Cape Town. The vessels belong to the Chinese company Shenzhen Shuiwan Pelagic Fisheries.
The captains of the vessels were charged and fined 400,000 rand (about $24,000). After the company paid the penalty, the ships were allowed to leave South African waters.
Authorities said the vessels first asked permission to pass through the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone under the right of “innocent passage.” They later requested special Off-Port Limits (OPL) authorisation but failed to provide proper documents, so the request was rejected.
Investigators later discovered the vessels had already entered South African territorial waters while their request was still being reviewed. They were detected near the coast of KwaZulu-Natal and later tracked along the Eastern Cape coastline.
Officials also said the ships repeatedly turned their Automatic Identification System (AIS) on and off, which violates South African maritime regulations that require foreign vessels to keep the tracking system active while sailing through national waters.
Source: Newstimehub
