On Friday evening a report came in of an illegal vietnamese boat fishing within the protected area.

At around 7pm a patrol went out to investigate the report and found 1 vietnamese boat within 15m of Koh Koun with its nets over the coral and within the communities protected conservation area.

The boat on seeing the patrol cut the net it was pulling in as the patrol started to explain about the community conservation area a large storm started with the wind picking up and heavy rain the patrol group instructed the boat to go the the village pier.
The boat at first tried to make a run for it but the patrol quickly caught up with the boat and instructed them again to go to the pier of the village to explain their actions to the fisheries community chief, twice on the way to the pier the boat tried to escape but was quickly cut of by the other patrol boat which had been called to assist.


Once back at the village the patrols recognised the illegal fishers as the patrol group had previously had to explain the rules of the community fishing area to the crew of this boat.

The crew was instructed to sign the community papers stating that they understand the rules of the community fisheries and will not fish illegally again in the area.

We were all very proud of the patrol group and the community fisheries committee as these fishers continued to offer bribes and beg the community to allow them to continue their illegal fishing but the community stood firm and refused these bribes.

Eventually the fishers on hearing that if they did not comply and agree to sign the document informing them their actions were illegal and agree in future to follow the rules the community would call the relevant authorities and hand them over they then agreed to sign the agreement to abide by the community fisheries rules

The Pictures tell the rest of the story and below are the pictures of the attempted bribes offered to the community members