Source: Ecoterra Intl
“FV Golden Wave†(also with the Korean name “Keummi 305â€), a large S-Korean-owned but now apparently Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel, which had been transformed from an old merchant ship into a specialized fishing vessel, was already captured on the 9th of October 2010, possibly in Somali waters, the East African Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) reported earlier.
The owners as well as the international navies have been keeping mum until yesterday, when the British mastered Maritime Security Centre MSC (HOA) notified the case based on a statement by South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. But maritime observers working in Somalia with Ecoterra Intl. had earlier confirmed that the vessel is already held off the Central Somali coast off Harardheere (Xarardheere), from where yesterday some movement again southwards was observed.
The owners, who had earlier not reported the case, say now that the position of the capture of the vessel and crew was 03:06S and 047:58E at 07h45 UTC (10h45 local) on the 9th of Oct. 2010 in the Somali Basin, but this report is seriously questionable and local reports state that the vessel was boarded while deep inside the Somali waters. However, Ecoterra Intl. and SAP urged the Somalis to either open a formal and legal process to prosecute the case of illegal fishing, or to release the vessel, if there is evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that the ship and crew were not fishing illegally in Somali waters.
Since both countries, Kenya and Somalia have ratified the United Nations Common Law on the Sea (UNCLOS) since long, there is no doubt about the maritime boundary between the two states, despite the persistent haggling and attempts on higher levels to alter this. However, the vessel is very well known since many years for its poaching operations, also the Malindi Marine Association in Kenya (MaMa-Sea) and ECOP marine, a group of marine protection specialists, confirmed.
The vessel had been illegally entering the Somali fishing grounds with impunity over many years and then usually kept hanging out at the North Kenya banks as well as even off Malindi in order to cover the traces of the illegal activities.
Though the judiciaries of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia as well as e.g. of the regional State of Galmudug still face serious problems, a legal process is possible everywhere in Somalia and not only in Somaliland and Puntland, where the international community has recognized the legal procedures and regularly hands over pirates arrested by the navies into these systems, which even are sentencing people to death and execute the death penalty. Especially because officially there is a moratorium on fishing by foreign-flagged vessels in Somali waters since 2008 firmly in place and no legal licences have been issued, the case must be dealt with in front of a court.
Ecoterra Intl. spokesman Dr. Hans-Juergen Duwe called upon specialized legal organizations, judges and lawyers from benches in friendly nations to come forward and assist the Somali judiciaries in prosecuting such cases, which all too easily are otherwise then just brushed away as pure piracy and thereby kept away from the eyes of the legal eagles and the law - thereby encouraging other fish-poachers to copycat, since the risk to be captured by Somali coastguards or the real buccaneers is still rather minimal.
The vessel has a large crew of 43 seafarers with a South-Korean master and a South-Korean chief engineer as well as two Chinese officers and 39 Kenyans. Their venture is specialized on scooping by pot-fishing the ever declining populations of coastal crab and rock lobsters, a delicacy for the top-market seafood restaurants the world over, as well as in long-line fishing for the high-priced yellow-fin tuna and Kingfish as well as the rare bill-fish like Marlin and Sailfish as well as the already endangered sword-fish. For the tuna-fishing it would also have to be registered with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), but the vessel is not listed there - neither as Keummi 305 nor as Golden Wave.
Also in Kenya local fishing co-operatives as well as the associations of deep-sea anglers had complained since long about the detrimental activities of this specific vessel, which is persistently using illegal gear. While in the mostly unprotected waters of Somalia their clandestine deals usually were covered with a handful of dollars into the palms of some unscrupulous businessmen, local “authorities†or impoverished local fellows, they apparently also enjoy “protection†from certain cadres in Kenya. However, fishermen contacted at the Kenya coast yesterday actually jubilated that this vessel had been finally captured by the Somalis. The pirates haven’t contacted the ship’s agent in the south-eastern South-Korean port city of Busan for any possible negotiation, Yonhap news agency said.
The fisheries company that owns the ship shut down its Busan head office due to financial troubles in 2007 and has been operating only with the Keummi 305, it said. Reports state that Captain Kim himself, who is on board, is the owner of the vessel.