Royal Australian Navy patrol boats have found a large foreign fishing fleet of 40 trawlers, three mother ships and a tanker, operating just outside Australian waters north of Australia.

The discovery late last month north-east of Darwin, led to HMAS CESSNOCK, (LCDR C Cooper) and HMAS TOWNSVILLE (LCDR P Spedding) commencing extensive overt and covert patrols among the vessels identified as Taiwanese owned but Indonesian flagged.

HMAS BUNBURY… a busy month

The patrols by CESSNOCK and TOWNSVILLE were just part of the superb work being done by the Navy and its sister services, Coastwatch, the Australian Fish Management Authority and Immigration Department in protecting Australia and her resources.

So far this year Australian warships have arrested close to 50 foreign fishing vessels for poaching or transporting illegal immigrants.

November was also a busy month for HMAS BUNBURY (LCDR M Purdy). Operating in waters north-west of Australia, the 250 tonne BUNBURY and her crew of 25 had a "mixed bag" of important tasks.

Asked for help by Coastwatch and the master of AURELIA IV, BUNBURY went to Ashmore Reef where she found a motorised fishing boat from the Indonesian port of Roti. On board were 20 men, 11 Kurds, four Iraquis and five Indonesian-born crew members.

All were aged from 30 to 40 years and all were in good health except for one with sea sickness.

BUNBURY was asked to secure the boat at the reef, take the 20 on board and transport them to Port Hedland for further inquiries by Immigration officers.

Earlier BUNBURY, again on request from the AURELIA IV, checked out a sunken Indonesian fishing boat at Ashmore Reef.

BUNBURY's crew found an eight-kilometre trail of debris including charcoal, planks and a thong.

It is thought the Type 3 craft broke up on the reef but did not constitute a hazard. There was no report of occupants.

BUNBURY also went to Browse Island to check why an automatic weather station was not working properly.

Her crew found the shed holding the equipment broken into. A panel from a solar electricity light tower nearby was missing as was a copper earth wire at the base of the tower.

While on patrol HMAS CESSNOCK also arrested Type 3 craft with seven people on board found fishing within the Australian Fishing Zone.

By Graham Davis