Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday indicted and detained 10 crew members of a Chinese ship allegedly caught dredging sand in Taiwan’s territorial waters earlier this month.
Ciaotou District (橋頭) Prosecutors’ Office said a bail court judge approved detaining the crew on a charge of breaching the Act on the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf of the Republic of China (中華民國專屬經濟海域及大陸礁層法).
Under Article 18 of the act, they face up to five years in prison and up to NT$50 million (US$1.69 million) in fines if found guilty of willfully damaging the natural resources or ecology of the nation’s exclusive economic zone or the continental shelf.
The court agreed to hold the crew pending a hearing, saying that the captain, surnamed Xiao (肖), and the crew members were flight risks, as they did not live in Taiwan.
Prosecutors said the indictment came after Coast Guard Administration (CGA) vessels on June 3 boarded the 7,539-tonne Chinese sand dredger ship.
CGA patrols reported that there were more than 20 Chinese dredging vessels in the area known as “Taiwan Banks” (台灣淺堆), about 46 nautical miles (85km) southwest of Penghu County’s Cimei Islet (七美).
Two CGA armed vessels and two naval frigates deployed water cannons and cornered a vessel with the designation No. 5679.
Seventeen coast guard personnel boarded the ship to detain and escort its crew to Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor (興達港), the CGA said.
The CGA estimated that the ship might have mined more than 500 tonnes of sea sand, it said.
Authorities said such illegal operations by Chinese vessels have extensively damaged coastal terrain and the ecosystem in the waters around Penghu’s islands.
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