The fleet of 15 industrial fishing vessels arrested for targeting sharks by Timor Leste authorities in September 2017 have been released without charge, according to Sea Shepherd.
On 9 September 2017, Sea Shepherd’s M/V Ocean Warrior supported the Timor Leste National Police (PNTL) in a dawn raid of the Fu Yuan Yu fleet of fifteen fishing vessels, owned by the Chinese Hong Long Company, operating within the Southeast Asian waters of Timor Leste.
The fleet, which had already been banned from Indonesia over illegal fishing, obtained a 12-month permit to fish inside Timor Leste’s sovereign waters for a modest fee of just US$312,450.
PNTL took action after Sea Shepherd shared evidence of the fleet indiscriminately fishing for sharks in the island nation’s southern waters. The PNTL officers were delivered in groups of four to several of the fishing vessels.
The vessels’ freezer holds were full of sharks -Sea Shepherd estimates that there were between 10,000-15,000 sharks per vessel– and very few other fish. Deck crew confirmed there had been a potentially illegal transshipment (offloading of cargo from one vessel to another) only two months earlier, meaning that on average they could have been catching approximately 93,750 sharks per month across the fleet. Notably, at-sea transshipment is forbidden under Timorese law.
The laws of Timor Leste also very clearly prohibit catching any sharks listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Although East Timor is not a signatory to CITES, its law protecting endangered species covers all CITES-listed wildlife. Additionally, the licenses issued to the Fu Yuan Yu vessels expressly referenced this law and included an appendix specifying the prohibited shark species.
Unscrupulous foreign commercial fishing activities must be stopped in Timor Leste. We must protect our natural resources, it is an outrage.
…said Dr. Jose Ramos Horta – Former Timor Leste President/Prime Minister & Nobel Peace Prize Winner
The fleet of 15 vessels was detained in the bay off the capital of Dili, where it remained rafted together in three groups of five vessels, awaiting judicial action for nine months. However, in late May 2018, the fleet was allowed to return to China for maintenance after paying a relatively small bail of US$100,000.
Once the fleet departed Timor Leste waters, the Prosecutor’s Office declared the fleet “not guilty” of violating any laws.
