Court fines foreign ship captain, crew members K55,000 for various charges

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
A SHIP captain, his second-in-command and a crew member of a foreign fishing vessel have been fined a total of K55,000 for various charges after they were caught in PNG waters illegally.
Min Shi Yu 00368 captain Shi Kehu of China, his deputy Ying Kit Lam of Hong Kong and Mariglen Dhimogjini of Albania were fined by the Kavieng District Court last Friday.
According to the National Fisheries Authority, the captain was fined K40,000 in default four years in jail for withholding information, not complying with instructions to stop for boarding and inspection, destroying navigational data to avoid detection, not complying with gear stowage requirements and engaging in fishing-related activities in other countries’ waters without a fishing permits.
Second-in-command Lam was fined K10,000 in default two years in prison for giving false and misleading information and withholding information.
Crew member Mariglen was fined K5,000 for withholding information, in default one year in jail.
They have been given seven days to pay the fines.
Executive manager monitoring control and surveillance Gisa Komangin said the authority had been expecting a much heavier fine of up to K1 million.
“For the captain’s five charge, a maximum court fine of K2.5 million would have been sufficient considering the type of operation this vessel was committing to support illegal fishing vessels at sea,” he said.
“Thailand’s export price for frozen tuna is at US$1,550 (K5,420) per tonne.
“Protecting this resource with limited monitoring and surveillance capacity should (have been) considered.”