Egyptian ship seized for fishing Yemeni waters [Archives:2006/939/Local News]
Ismail Al-Ghabiri
HODEIDAH, April 18 ) Judge Isaac Mohamed Salah, chief of Public Funds Prosecution in Hodeidah, stated that it has completed investigating the crew of an Egyptian ship named Anwar Makkah, seized during piracy acts and while fishing in Yemeni regional waters without permission.
The ship did not abide by navigational laws, as it discarded fish waste and oil into the sea, thereby destroying the marine environment – including pearls – and causing an estimated $1.7 million in damages.
Salah noted that the Egyptian ship has been fishing in Yemeni waters for nearly two months, until it eventually was caught at Hodeidah Port. He indicated that authorities could not seize the ship earlier because it hid among other Egyptian ships with permission, as part of a mutual cooperation agreement between Yemen and Egypt.
Well-informed sources revealed that Yemen's government enacted effective procedures to protect international navigation and fight piracy acts and random fishing in its regional waters.
The same sources said the government deployed organized patrols from Yemeni coast guards working round the clock to observe illegal activities in Yemeni regional waters and combat piracy acts targeting Yemeni fishermen and ships.
They confirmed that the government supplied the coast guards with modern boats and equipment to protect international navigation and set permanent observance checkpoints to offer navigational services and guide ships sailing in Yemeni regional waters.
Many local fishermen were exposed to and detained during piracy acts by Somali pirates, but Yemen's government later contacted Somali authorities, which released them.
Two days ago, a U.S.-flagged yacht with three people aboard was attacked by pirates wielding rocket launchers off Yemen's coast, the Italian coast guard said Sunday, after an Italian freight ship reported a distress call.
“Around 9:45 a.m., an Italian container ship, the Jolly Platino, called to say it had heard an SOS message from an American sailing vessel, the Tir Na Nog,” an official from the Rome headquarters of the coast guard told Reuters.
The Italians informed U.S. authorities in the region of the incident, which happened some 25 miles (40 km.) off Yemen's coast. The official said two U.S. and one Dutch military vessel in the area were told of the attack, but he did not know how any rescue attempts were progressing.
Cmdr. Jeff Breslau, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, said, “Coalition forces are investigating the incident.” He gave no further details.
A Yemeni coast guard official in Aden said he did not have any information about the incident, adding that it occurred outside Yemen's territorial waters.
Yemen shares territorial waters with Somalia, whose coastal waters have become among the world's most dangerous in the 14 years it has lacked a central government.
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