PHUKET: A poacher vessel pursued by Sea Shepherd to Thailand has broken free and is now sailing international waters with its valuable cargo of stolen Antarctic toothfish.
The piratical Taishan has a crew of just three Spaniards and leaves behind an unpaid bill of two million baht ($66,000), with Thai authorities meeting today to decide whether to send a Navy warship in pursuit.
An epic chase of the marine poachers by the Sea Shepherd took a new turn in Thailand when the ship and its illegal haul, valued at millions of dollars, were placed under arrest by Thai authorities in March.
Since then, the 182-tonne vessel has been anchored off Phuket. Back in July, the illicit cargo, having been placed in storage, was reloaded onto the ship.
On Monday, the staff of the Royal Thai Customs investigation and suppression bureau used binoculars to make a cursory daily check of the ship - and it was no longer anywhere to be seen.
The bureau's chief, Charoen Chamniklang, joined an emergency meeting today with officers from the Royal Thai Navy 3 base on Phuket and a representative from broker South Services, which says it is owed two million baht.
''We blinked and the ship was gone,'' he told Phuketwan today. ''Whether we can do anything remains to be seen.''
The vessel's cargo was originally destined for Hong Kong but there has been talk in intervening months of making Indonesia the new destination.
Back in March, the Taichan - a ship that is regularly renamed and was previously a rustbucket known as the Kunlun - entered Thai waters.
Customs officials were told it carried a cargo of ''Chilean sea bass''.
'Inspection showed they were lying,'' a Customs official told Phuketwan. ''The cargo is toothfish [also known as snowfish].''
Before its arrival in Thailand, the Kunlun had led Greenpeace pursuers on an epic, 900-mile chase.
The apprehension of the vessel came about in a strange fashion.
When the Taichan arrived off Thailand it was to deliver to hospital a Spanish crewman who had attempted suicide. He was treated and flew home several days later.
By halting off Phuket, the ship and its illegal cargo appeared to be on a suicide mission of its own.
However, a brokerage service carried the cargo south to the port of Songkhla and cold storage.
Officials on Phuket questioned the qualifications of the Peruvian captain, who has since flown home and had been replaced by a Spanish captain.
However, officials have now told Phuketwan that only the three crew are still on the vessel.
The Kunlun/Taishan claimed to be Indonesian-registered, but officials at the Indonesia embassy found this wasn't true and ordered the 21 crew who arrived in March not to work on the ship.
However, the vessel was not on a blacklist at Immigration and in theory, could have sailed once its cargo reloaded at any time. It appears that's what has happened.
Siddharth Chakravarty, a volunteer captain for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, told the Los Angeles Times in June that he first encountered the Kunlun on an overcast January day on a remote stretch of the Antarctic Ocean that he calls the ''Shadowlands,'' international waters about 2400 miles southwest of Australia.
''We chased her till she was about 900 miles away from where we had found her,'' Chakravarty said.
Eventually, Chakravarty peeled off to Mauritius, and the Kunlun sailed to Australia's Cocos Islands, where on February 26, customs officials boarded the ship, found a large load of frozen fish and left without filing any charges or complaints.
Australia's parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister, Richard Colbeck, told local news media that Australia was legally barred from arresting the captain and crew because they were on the high seas.
When the ship entered Thailand's waters off Phuket on March 6, local authorities didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
The captain told authorities that his ship was the Taishan, the name emblazoned on its hull, and that it hailed from Indonesia.
For decades, overfishing has depleted global fishing stocks and threatened the existence of entire species. Stopping the poachers has become an international imperative.
The piratical Taishan has a crew of just three Spaniards and leaves behind an unpaid bill of two million baht ($66,000), with Thai authorities meeting today to decide whether to send a Navy warship in pursuit.
An epic chase of the marine poachers by the Sea Shepherd took a new turn in Thailand when the ship and its illegal haul, valued at millions of dollars, were placed under arrest by Thai authorities in March.
Since then, the 182-tonne vessel has been anchored off Phuket. Back in July, the illicit cargo, having been placed in storage, was reloaded onto the ship.
On Monday, the staff of the Royal Thai Customs investigation and suppression bureau used binoculars to make a cursory daily check of the ship - and it was no longer anywhere to be seen.
The bureau's chief, Charoen Chamniklang, joined an emergency meeting today with officers from the Royal Thai Navy 3 base on Phuket and a representative from broker South Services, which says it is owed two million baht.
''We blinked and the ship was gone,'' he told Phuketwan today. ''Whether we can do anything remains to be seen.''
The vessel's cargo was originally destined for Hong Kong but there has been talk in intervening months of making Indonesia the new destination.
Back in March, the Taichan - a ship that is regularly renamed and was previously a rustbucket known as the Kunlun - entered Thai waters.
Customs officials were told it carried a cargo of ''Chilean sea bass''.
'Inspection showed they were lying,'' a Customs official told Phuketwan. ''The cargo is toothfish [also known as snowfish].''
Before its arrival in Thailand, the Kunlun had led Greenpeace pursuers on an epic, 900-mile chase.
The apprehension of the vessel came about in a strange fashion.
When the Taichan arrived off Thailand it was to deliver to hospital a Spanish crewman who had attempted suicide. He was treated and flew home several days later.
By halting off Phuket, the ship and its illegal cargo appeared to be on a suicide mission of its own.
However, a brokerage service carried the cargo south to the port of Songkhla and cold storage.
Officials on Phuket questioned the qualifications of the Peruvian captain, who has since flown home and had been replaced by a Spanish captain.
However, officials have now told Phuketwan that only the three crew are still on the vessel.
The Kunlun/Taishan claimed to be Indonesian-registered, but officials at the Indonesia embassy found this wasn't true and ordered the 21 crew who arrived in March not to work on the ship.
However, the vessel was not on a blacklist at Immigration and in theory, could have sailed once its cargo reloaded at any time. It appears that's what has happened.
Siddharth Chakravarty, a volunteer captain for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, told the Los Angeles Times in June that he first encountered the Kunlun on an overcast January day on a remote stretch of the Antarctic Ocean that he calls the ''Shadowlands,'' international waters about 2400 miles southwest of Australia.
''We chased her till she was about 900 miles away from where we had found her,'' Chakravarty said.
Eventually, Chakravarty peeled off to Mauritius, and the Kunlun sailed to Australia's Cocos Islands, where on February 26, customs officials boarded the ship, found a large load of frozen fish and left without filing any charges or complaints.
Australia's parliamentary secretary to the agriculture minister, Richard Colbeck, told local news media that Australia was legally barred from arresting the captain and crew because they were on the high seas.
When the ship entered Thailand's waters off Phuket on March 6, local authorities didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
The captain told authorities that his ship was the Taishan, the name emblazoned on its hull, and that it hailed from Indonesia.
For decades, overfishing has depleted global fishing stocks and threatened the existence of entire species. Stopping the poachers has become an international imperative.
Why do the illegal cargo was not seized and reloaded on board? Why the ship was not seized, why the crew was not jailed waiting for prosecution?
They simply let it go and ruined Sea Shepherd's job!
Posted by jean-paul patrick on September 9, 2015 11:14