South Africa seizes four Chinese fishing vessels in Its waters

**South Africa said it had seized four Chinese fishing vessels after they entered its Exclusive Economic Zone without authorization, triggering an inter-agency response.**e zones,” Aucamp said.

The vessels were fined 400,000 rand (about $24,000), wh

The vessels, owned by Shenzhen Shuiwan Pelagic Fisheries, were intercepted and placed under supervision in Cape Town, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Willie Aucamp said in a statement on Thursday.

The ships requested “innocent passage” on February 23, stating that they would leave South African waters before March 3. However, a few days later they sought permission to navigate outside port limits without the required documents, he added.

During this period, the vessels repeatedly switched off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders while already inside South African territorial waters.

They were detected less than 12 nautical miles from the KwaZulu-Natal coast and were later tracked as they moved south along the Eastern Cape coastline.

“South Africa will not tolerate the illegal use of its maritimich was quickly paid, after which they were released and have since left South African waters.