No dead human bodies found on illegal fishing vessel
The bodies discovered in the freezer of the fishing vessel were in fact large tuna, a team of officers from the National Fisheries Authority, National Agricul-ture and Quarantine Inspection Authority, Health Department, environmental officer, police and the Bougainville disaster relief office has found.
They have just completed their assessment on the alleged illegal fishing vessel that ran aground on Paona Island in Bougainville.
The island is one of the many smaller islands in the remote Nuguria atoll areas and is used as the wildlife sanctuary for the people who live on the other mainland island about 45 minutes by boat and an eight-hour boat ride and 264 kilometres from Buka.
The abandoned vessel, Liao Yuan Yu 68 was first discovered by locals on December 17 when they went to dive for turtles in preparation for the opening of their new health centre.
Paramount chief Robinson Himata of the Perulani clan, which is responsible for looking after the Paona wildlife area, said the 54m vessel has been torched before being abandoned, leaving behind its tuna catch. Village youths who went to investigate reported seeing human-like figures in the freezer compartment which was reported to the Bougainville disaster relief office.
The assessment team which travelled to the island on Monday has found that the suspected bodies on the freezer trays were large yellow fin tuna that were the size of adult humans.
The top of the vessel was completely burnt out from the wheel house to the rear of the ship and still contained diesel and oil that the locals were taking from the front tanks but the rear fuel tank is mixed with sea water, which the youths cannot take and this will pose a risk to the environment.
Tumor Boise of the Natio-nal Fisheries Authority said the vessel hasd been engaged in illegal fishing and is an illegal unreported unregulated (IUU) long liner fishing vessel and is not listed to fish in Papua New Guinea waters.
PNG Today /Post Courier
Post a Comment