The Koh Rung Samloem Community have been very busy this week conducting regular patrols of the protected areas and they have stopped 7 incidences of illegal pratices so far.
The least of these was some Children who were swimming into the bay to collect hermit crabs. Another Vietnamese boat was caught the day after, fishing with traps and with supplied air, which usually involves cyanide, near to the dive site Corner Bar. Their boat was found to be filled with their catch which including many grouper, snapper, some snails and two sharks. All the fish were still alive and released while the four fishermen were taken to the Chief and had their pictures and fingerprints taken.
Two Khmer boats have also been apprehended this week, one was anchored on the corral and so asked to leave, the other was fishing with lines and a powerful lamp just after nightfall, again inside the corral. These fishermen did not realise they were in an area protected from fishing so once they left, no further action was taken.
The fishermen were not alone in being caught anchoring in the wrong place. The villagers also asked a tourist dive vessel to remove its anchor from the local reef, the boat had been anchored on the coral at the Corner Bar dive site and so again they were asked not to anchor there because of the damage it will cause.
To view all the Photographic evidence from the patrols click here
One Photograph was removed from this article due to the fact that the diving company involved felt it was not good for buisiness to be seen anchoring on the reef and contacted the community directly to ask for it to be removed. We have agreed to remove this picture but in future we will publisise the Names of all involved and the company name. Its about time a project aware eco operator should abide by the ethics it publisises.
To the company that is involved please be aware that it is a class one fisheries offence to anchor on the coral reefs. Anchoring on the coral reef is not only environmentally destructive but illegal by Cambodian Law.
