Navy sinks Thai fishing boat

Navy sinks Thai fishing boat

JAKARTA: The Indonesian Navy sank a Thai fishing boat and arrested 11 of its crew members off the eastern coast of Sumatra island, officers said on Friday.

Lt. Col. Teguh Wahyono, a spokesman for the Navy's Western Fleet, said a patrol vessel arrested the crew after they were caught fishing illegally in the waters off Riau province on Sumatra island on Tuesday. It then fired on the vessel, the Minabakti, and sank it.

"They stole a lot of fish there," Wahyono said.

Navy officers said they were cracking down on illegal fishing in Indonesia's vast territorial waters. Since the beginning of the month, the Navy has sunk or seized 12 vessels suspected of illegal fishing.

Illegal fishing is common in the waters off Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation. The Navy often complains it does not have the resources to patrol its thousands of kilometers of coastline. -- AP