CEBU CITY, Philippines—The anti-illegal fishing group Bantay Dagat arrested Wednesday 30 crew members of two commercial fishing boats for allegedly fishing less than 15 kilometers from the shore of Daanbantayan town, 128 km north of here.
Loy Madrigal, leader of Task Force Against Illegal Fishing, said the authorities recovered a manta ray, a nurse shark and five dried seahorses – all endangered species – along with 190 buckets of fish from the fishing boats Angel Mae and Laura Rowella from Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
He said the manta ray and 150 buckets of fish were recovered from Laura Rowella while the nurse shark, seahorse and 40 buckets of fish were seized from Angel Mae.
Madrigal said they were patrolling the waters of Daanbantayan town about 5 a.m. when they noticed two fishing vessels less than 15 km from the shoreline in violation of the Fisheries Code of 1988.
He said the Daanbantayan municipal government would file charges against the crew members and owners of the fishing vessels.
Herculano Cordova, skipper of the Angel Mae, denied they were fishing in Daanbantayan, saying they had come from Masbate where they cuaght the fish.
He said they were heading back to Cadiz on Tuesday night when they encountered rough seas. They then decided to drop anchor off Daanbantayan and wait for the seas to calm down in the morning.
Cordova said they were sleeping when the members of the Bantay Dagat patrol arrived.
The skipper said they did not catch the seahorses, which were actually dried speciments brought by a crew member for treatment of stomachache. He said dried seahorses were an effective cure for stomachaches.
“We drink the water used to boil crushed seahorse,” he said.
Cordova said they caught the nurse shark, which was about the size of a man’s arm, and planned to cook and eat it.
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