Source: Australia To
The 56 meter long, 696 GRT Taiwanese fishing vessel FV WIN FAR 161 with the registration CT7-0485 and call-sign BI-2485 was seized April 6, 2009 near the Seychelles. The tuna long-liner is said to have been observed earlier to fish illegally in Somali waters. It had after the sea-jacking been involved in the attack on MV ALABAMA. Though Taiwan foreign affairs spokesperson Henry Chen refuted the report, the vessel had been used also for further attacks. The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) is still together and on board, but in awful condition.
The ship’s skipper and first engineer are Taiwanese nationals and the 700-ton long-liner is apparently owned by HSIEN LUNG YIN of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan and operated under the management of WIN UNI MARINE by the Taiwanese company WIN JYI FISHERY CO. LTD. (WIN FAR FISHERY GROUP/Xiamen) from KAOHSIUNG, which regularly sent their vessels into Somali waters from the Seychelles - a key transhipment point for poached tuna from the Indian Ocean to Japan.
Taiwan is not a party to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and thereby feels not bound by its regulations. The Government of the Philippines seems to be pretty helpless to even find the manning agency, which lured the 17 Pinoy sailors into the fish-poaching operation.
Armed response damaged the vessel when it attacked a naval cargo ship but it could return to Garad, where it was moored, about 7 nm from the beach at the north-eastern Indian Ocean coast for a long time. She lost all her oil but it could be replaced with help from sea-jacked Theresa VIII and though limping she was able to sail again and was transferred to Hobyo at the Central Indian Ocean coast of Somalia, where the vessel is held now. The vessel can be moored on the heavy anchor obtained from another, former sea-jack hostage - the MV Hansa Stavanger.
The governments of the crew members seem not to be able to push the owner to come to terms while the crew is in a horrible state and Selon Edward Huang, the general secretary of the Taiwanese Association of Tuna exporters went quiet. “Let’s concentrate on getting the crew of WIN FAR 161 free,†commented a spokesman from ECOTERRA Intl. and added “that crew suffers at the moment the longest and the most, whereby the US naval vessel close by is not helping in any way to ease the plight of the 30 sailors from five nations.â€
The vessel is now held 4.5nm north from Hobyo, but the group holding it apparently lacks an interpreter for proper negotiations. The ransom demand has reduced significantly, but it is feared that the owner wants to abandon ship to cash the insurance sum in full.
FV THAI UNION 3: Seized on Oct. 29, 2009. Pirates on two skiffs boarded the tuna fishing boat with a crew of 27 with 23 Russians, two Filipinos and two nationals from Ghana about 200 nautical miles north of the Seychelles and 650 miles off the Somali coast. During the attack the Russian captain was shot in the left elbow. The Russian and US navies tried to provide medical aid to the captain, while the captors themselves took him to hospital, had him treated and returned him to the vessel. The fishing vessel and its crew were held just around 1.5nm from where FV ALAKRANA was held at Ga’an, near Harardheere at the central Somali coast of the Indian Ocean but now have been moved to Ga’an - south of Hobyo. Negotiations were said already earlier not to go ahead well and apparently have now stalled.