More fish found on detained Asian trawlers

THE state has clamped down on information relating to the three Asian trawlers discovered in the waters near Port Elizabeth and detained in the East London port for allegedly plundering hundreds of tons of squid and other fish.

Although initially estimated at 600 tons of squid, the final tonnage could be closer to 800, according to the Daily Dispatch.

This would push the loss to the economy to almost R85-million.

Officials also found a large number of dorado aboard one of the so-called squid boats, indicating the vessels’ ability to use multiple catch systems.

Yesterday, three television crews hounded agriculture, fisheries and forestry officials for access to the two-year-old Chinese squid long-line trawlers – Fu Yuan Yu 7880 and 7881, both over 70m long – and a rusted Indonesian vessel, Run Da 617.

Uniformed officials in a twin-engined rubber dinghy patrolled the river port nearby.

Fisheries officials said the media silence was to allow for protocol and processes.

They stayed in a room a few hundred metres from where the vessels and their 100 crew members remained under boat arrest.

Yesterday, a YouTube clip on how automated machine-run jiggers on industrialised fishing vessels, like the arrested boats, mine the ocean of tons of squid was doing the rounds on social media.

South African regulations forbid the use of electric jiggers in favour of providing jobs for fishermen.

It is also the closed season for squid fishing, and the discovery of these specialised squid fishing vessels off Port Elizabeth has outraged the country’s squid industry.