Volunteers, fishermen clash in ‘naval battle’ off Kep’s coast

A group of foreign conservation volunteers sailing off the coast of Kep province late on Friday night were set upon by a flotilla of illegal fishermen who attempted to pelt them with rocks and other projectiles, only disbanding after Cambodian maritime police fired warning shots into the sea.

According to Paul Ferber, founder of Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC), an oceanic research group that also monitors illegal fishing in Kep Bay, the incident occurred while a boat of seven foreign, mostly young volunteers were out on the bay for a stargazing cruise after 10pm.

Ferber said that when the stargazers unexpectedly encountered an illegal trawler about 1 kilometre off of Koh Seh, MCC’s research island near the Vietnamese border, the fishermen cut their trawling nets – which were electrified, added Ferber, “a class-one jailable offence” – and began chasing the volunteers.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/volunteers-fishermen-clash-naval-battle-keps-coast