My first night patrol with MCC was an intense but seriously awesome experience.
I didn’t really know what to expect or how everything would go so I sat back and just tried to take everything in! one of the first things we noticed as we headed out was the bio-luminescence . My amazement of this was equalled by the crews ability to locate the illegal trawler boats in the pitch black simply by listening.
As we approached the trawler boat I felt excited, nervous and intrigued all at the same time!! The boat was using electric trawling gear which was a great intercept but things only got more interesting when they tried to make an escape! Their efforts were in vain as we quickly caught them, confiscated their gear and had been given the instructions to take the boat back to our pier. This was crazy for not only me but everyone else as well, as MCC had never actually seized an illegal fishing boat before! From there the fisheries department stepped in and dealt with the situation.
As we returned everyone was filled with a sense of achievement and satisfaction as we knew all the hard work we were doing was sending a strong message to the illegal fishing community and helping to preserve the marine life and underwater environment.
