Illegal South Korean Fishing Vessel Seized in Somalia Now Back in Kenya
ECOTERRA Intl. urges The South Korean government as well as the authorities of the Republic of Kenya to fully investigate the case of "GOLDEN WAVE 305" and hold the owner, captain, manager and agent responsible for endangering the lives of 39 Kenyan seamen, aiding Somali pirates in piracy operations and illegal fishing in the first place.
FV GOLDEN WAVE WAS ILLEGAL ALL THE WAY ALONG
A South Korean fishing vessel seized in October last year in Somali waters has arrived in the Kenyan port of Mombasa after its release last week from Somalia.
Family and friends of the 39 Kenyan, two South Korean and two Chinese sailors aboard welcomed them. Emotional scenes could be observed as the sailors met their families and somer officials gathered for their arrival, among them the East African chapter chairman of the Seafarers Assistance Programme (SAP), Mr. Andrew Mwangura.
The FV Golden Wave - also known as Keummi 305 (or Geummi 305) - was escorted into the port by a Finnish warship and a small Kenyan navy boat. South Korea's foreign ministry earlier said the South Korean navy had requested that a vessel from the EU Naval Force accompany the Keummi 305 to secure the safety of the sailors.
The 241-ton, sometimes Kenya-flagged fishing vessel, which had not been authorized by the South Korean Government to fish outside Korean waters, was attacked on October 9 in Somali waters off Ras Kiamboni north of Kenya's Lamu Island while fishing.
Kenyan Joseph Amere, who had acted as the crew's chief negotiator with pirate bosses, told Reuters they had been illegally trawling for crabs off the shores of Somalia before the vessel was seized and later were forced to launch 17 raids on ships plying the busy waterways between east Africa and the Seychelles archipelago, because the shipowner was not ready to pay the hefty compensation for the illegal fishing.
The vessel was then captured by the Ras Kiamboni coastal militia and due to lack of a suitable court subsequently handed on to Somali brokers, which wanted to get the fine from the owner. Since that did not materialize, the vessel and crew were then handed to a group, which more known for acts of piracy than anything else.
This group thereafter misused the fishing vessel as piracy launch to capture merchant vessels and all together held onto the vessel for over four month.
Some of the crew members confirmed this already also to news reporters that their trawler was used by the pirates as a mother ship to attack other vessels and they gave brief statements on the true story of their ordeal. Their captors allegedly seized five other vessels in Kenyan waters, the sailors believe according to the Daily Nation, during the four months,of the terrifying ordeal, and at no time were Kenyan security forces anywhere in the vicinity. The editor of that newspaper therefore felt obliged to blow into the horn of the navies, stating that "The conclusion then is that our security agencies do not have the capacity to protect Kenyan territorial waters." The sailors and fishermen also reported from their hostage takers that many of the pirates say they began as fishermen but have lost their livelihoods because of foreign trawlers.
At first no information about a ransom was reported, while pirates usually only release ships after being paid.
The Korean agent, who had been outside the country on a family trip, now claimed to a Kenyan newspaper that the ship and crew were released on February 8 after payment of a reported KSh50 million (= 635,000 US$) ransom, which was immediately rubbished by the seamen as well as sources in Somalia. The East African Seafarers Assistance Programme said that there was maybe only at one point of time a payment of 50,000 US$ (= KSh 4 mio) for upkeep of the crew, but that otherwise the crew was released for having served in piracy actions and because there was no hope that the owner or agent would come up with any serious money.
The Kenyan sailors also revealed heart-rending stories of their ill-treatment, deprivation, and sheer horror of life in captivity as well as their fear for their families, which had not been supported by the shipowner during all that time of their absence.
The vessel was known since years to conduct fish-poaching operations and when it finally got entangled in Somali not just few, including the Malindi fishermen were actually relieved that the boat wouldn't disturb their fishing grounds for a while.
In any case the South Korean Government, who had already listed the vessel as an illegal operator, will conduct a full investigation and it is hoped by the Kenyan beach units of the fishing co-operatives as well as conservation organizations that the Kenya authorities follow swiftly for misusing the Kenyan flag in fish piracy in the first place.
©2011-ecoterra/ecop-marine
BACKGROUNDER:
SKOREAN FISHING VESSEL FREED FROM SOMALI DETENTION
FV GOLDEN WAVE 305 (sporting also the Korean name Geummi 305 or KEUMMI 305) was seized October 09, 2010. The 241-to large South-Korean-owned but now apparently Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel, which had been transformed from an old merchant ship into a specialized fishing vessel, was captured possibly in Somali waters or along the maritime boundary north of Kiunga (north of Lamu), the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme (SAP) reported first.
The owners as well as the international navies kept mum until 17. October, when the British mastered Maritime Security Centre MSC(HOA) notified the case based on a statement by South Korea's Foreign Ministry .
Maritime observers working in Somalia with ECOTERRA Intl. had earlier confirmed that the vessel on that day was already held off the Central Somali coast off Harardheere (Xarardheere), from where then some movement again southwards was observed.
The owners, who had not reported the case earlier , said then that the position of the capture of the vessel and crew was 03:06S and 047:58E at 07h45 UTC (10h45 local) on 09. Oct. 2010 in the Somali Basin, which would be just 10 miles off the coast of Lamu on the north of the Kenyan coast and near the border with Somalia. But this report is highly questionable since local reports state that the vessel was boarded while inside the Somali waters.
However, ECOTERRA Intl. and SAP urged the Somalis to either open a formal and legal process to prosecute a 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.
The 241-ton trawler cum long-liner is very well known since many years for its poaching operations, which was confirmed also by the Malindi Marine Association in Kenya (MaMa-Sea) and ECOP marine, a group of marine protection specialists. 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 foreign navies into these systems, which even are sentencing people to death and execute the death penalty. Especially because there is an official 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 the South-Korean owner cum 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 today 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 Dae Gun himself, who is on board, is the owner of the vessel.
The vessel at first was brought to Harardheere and then moved south to be held around 90 nm south of Harardheere, but on 23. October was then observed by naval forces in the vicinity of the point where an LPG tanker was sea-jacked the very day 50nm off Mombasa.
Apparently the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) is no longer operating.
Families of the seafarers fear the vessel might again be misused for other dangerous piracy operations under a human shield for which the crew is abused.
The Captain of the Golden Wave 305 Kim Dae-geun, it is said, was infected with malaria recently and was allowed to halt his forced assistance to the pirates, but he is in urgent need of medication. The whole crew lacks food and fresh water, though the vessels manager in Kenya, another South-Korean with the same first name as the capain Jong-gyu, who operates as agent in Mombasa, claimed he had sent US$ 50,000 for the upkeep of the crew.
The vessel was reported by the NATO Shipping Center (NSC), part of the Allied Maritime Command Headquarters Northwood, as having been forcibly used to help in the pirate hijackings of other vessels in November and December because no ransom had been paid for their release.
The arrival of the 4,500-tonne Choi Young, a South Korean destroyer with a fresh batch of some 300 troops, at the end of December in the Gulf of Aden marked the sixth replacement of the Cheonghae unit since its deployment early last year under a US-led multinational anti-piracy campaign, but South Korea will most likely not interfere, because it lists this vessel as an illegal fishing vessel.
In South Korea, the vessel is considered an illegal fishing boat because it is registered as a local trawler and did not receive government approval for fishing in foreign deep seas. Owner Kim Dae-geun already took out a 100 million won ($89,405) loan from the government by using the ship as collateral.
However, after the successful rescue of the Samho Jewelry, the SKorean government is worrying about the fate of a 240-ton crabbing boat hijacked by pirates off Africa last October.
In a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other related ministries to “come up with every possible measure to rescue the crew of the Geummi 305.” Kim said: “Protecting lives and ensuring the security of the people are important duties of the nation.”
The agent Kim Jong-gyu said in Mombasa that he negotiated with the pirates to get them to lower their ransom demand for the ship and crew to $600,000 from US$6 million.
Kim Jong-gyu slammed the Korean government for not trying to resolve the situation. “When the Geummi 305 was captured, the Foreign Ministry said it would help us if we stay quiet on this matter, citing the G-20 Seoul Summit,” Kim said. “But the ministry hasn’t called me since. Does the ministry think it’s O.K. for Korean nationals to be forced to work as Somali pirates?”
Kim Jong-gyu said he has plans to come up with US$300,000 of the US$600,000 ransom demand, but he’s struggling to gather the rest. Kim and Capt. Kim Dae-geun’s wife requested a loan from the Foreign Ministry, but it was rejected, the agent said. “We will do everything we can to repay the loan if the crew is released safely,” Kim Jong-gyu said. “Please help us.”
The SKorean Minister of National Defense Kim Kwan-jin had said on 24. January 2011 that the ministry was considering exchanging the pirates captured during the rescue of the Samho Jewelry for the Geummi 305 crew if the captured pirates were linked to the group that hijacked the crabbing boat. But the South Korean ministry withdrew that idea a day later. “There were some issues about exchanging the [Geummi] crew for the captured pirates, but it is the government’s position that it will bring the pirates here and punish them,” Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
The fishing vessel and crew were observed for some time south of Ceel Gaan, in the area of Harardheere and then briefly off Hobyo at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast, but the vessel is said now to have left the coast again for another piracy mission. At 1023 UTC on 20. January 2010 a merchant vessel was reported under attack by 1 skiff with 4-5 POB, weapons were fired upon the vessel. A mother ship was reported in vicinity and identified as MV GOLDEN WAVE in position Latitude 14°56N and Longitude: 059°14E.
After the deadly operation freeing South-Korean MT SAMHO JEWELRY was assumed the case would become even more difficult to solve, especially because the owner and manager didn't care earlier to find a fast solution to free the crew, but the case was solved, because the Somalis usually do not retaliate - even if they sometimes said so - and have now bigger fish to fry - some of whom they captured with the help of this vessel as pirate taxi.
FREEDOM AT LAST
Patricia, one of the wives of the Kenyan seamen of the South Korean boat expressed her great joy about the good news of freedom, which she heard from her husband directly after the last pirate had left the ship. Vessel and crew are said to be at present close to the boundary of the Somali waters and they expect a naval vessel to escort them to Mombasa. All crew of 43 seamen seem to be all right - given the circumstances.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry meanwhile confirmed the release.
At the request of the South Korean Government, an EU NAVFOR warship is currently heading toward the vessel to render immediate assistance.
That FV GOLDEN WAVE actually is now sitting and waiting for the European warship to arrive is considered also dangerous by the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.
An ECOTERRA spokesperson stated that the group is together with the families happy for the seamen to be released, but urged the South Korean as well as the Kenyan governments to carry out a serious investigation into the dealings of this vessel, which had been declared by the South Korean authorities to operate illegally in East Africa and also misuses Kenyan seafarers and fishermen to go on clandestine fishing operations in neighbouring countries.
South Korea, however, has now been seriously dragged into the piracy around the Horn of Africa.
©2011-ecoterra/ecop-marine
For further details and regional information see the Somali Marine and Coastal Monitor and the situation map of the PIRACY COASTS OF SOMALIA. See the archive at www.australia.to and news on www.international.to
EMERGENCY HELPLINES: sms/call +254-719-603-176 / +254-714-747-090
East Africa ILLEGAL FISHING AND DUMPING HOTLINE: +254-714-747-090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: office[at]ecoterra.net
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme : Call: +254-734-437838 or +254-714-747090 or SMS to +254-738-497979
ECOTERRA Intl. is an international nature protection and human rights organization, whose Africa offices in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania also monitor the marine and maritime situation along the East African Indian Ocean coasts as well as the Gulf of Aden. ECOTERRA is working in Somalia since 1986 and does focus in its work against piracy mainly on coastal development, marine protection and pacification. ECOP-marine (www.ecop.info) is an ECOTERRA group committed to fight against all forms of crime on the waters. Both stand firm against illegal fishing as well as against marine overexploitation and pollution.
N.B.: This status report is mainly for the next of kin of seafarers held hostage, who often do not get any information from the ship-owners or their governments, and shall serve as well as clearing-house for the media. Unless otherwise stated it is for educational purposes only. Request for further details can be e-mailed to: somalia[at]ecoterra.net (you have to verify your mail). Our reporting without fear or favour is based on integrity and independence.
Witnesses and whistle-blowers with proper information concerning naval operations and atrocities, acts of piracy or other crimes on the seas around the Horn of Africa, hostage case backgrounds and especially concerning illegal fishing and toxic wast dumping or pollution by ships as well as any environmental information, can call our 24h numbers and e-mail confidentially or even anonymously or to office[at]ecoterra-international.org and also can request a PGP key for secure transmission.
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