Patrol boat 'intercepts' Maltese fishing boat

An Armed Forces patrol boat intercepted a Maltese fishing vessel trawling less than three nautical miles off the Mellieha coast on Sunday evening, the army said yesterday.

The Protector-class patrol boat P51 caught the vessel trawling over is-Sikka l-Bajda, a 20-metre-deep reef renowned as a breeding area for species.

The maritime squadron boat dispatched its crew on a dinghy and found that the trawler's fishing gear was still in the sea when the officers ordered them to haul the net onto the boat.

The AFM boarding team said the nets were full of fish and other marine life that was trawled illegally.

The patrol boat escorted the fishing vessel to Fishmarket in Grand Harbour. The Fisheries Department is handling the case.

It is not the first time that fishing vessels have been caught trawling on is-Sikka l-Bajda, an area that falls within the three-mile conservation zone.

According to AFM sources, the owner of the fishing vessel had already been caught trawling in a conservation area some years ago and subsequently charged in court.

On February 18, an AFM patrol boat had caught another fishing vessel trawling illegally in the same area.