{"id":428523,"date":"2026-02-16T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428523\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:59:09","slug":"flotilla-of-foreign-fishing-boats-spotted-in-torres-strait-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/428523\/","title":{"rendered":"Flotilla of foreign fishing boats spotted in Torres Strait waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham Kerridge says he was at the helm of a helicopter over Australian waters when he spotted a group of illegal fishing boats motoring towards Indonesia this morning.<\/p>\n

The Torres Strait-based helicopter pilot photographed the three fishing boats, believed to be from Indonesia, during a routine charter flight.<\/p>\n

“They are pretty distinct,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Kerridge said he immediately reported them to Border Force and said they were “travelling quite quickly” about 10 kilometres south of Papua New Guinea, heading toward Indonesia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The New Guinea boats and the Indonesian boats are completely separate and obviously [look] nothing like [the boats] that run around the Torres Strait locally,” he said.<\/p>\n

It comes less than a week after Border Force said it had launched a multi-agency operation to target foreign fishing boats illegally entering Australian waters in north Queensland and the Torres Strait.<\/p>\n

The latest sighting means five suspected illegal fishing boats have been pictured in Far North Queensland waters since Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This suspected foreign fishing boat was pictured off Hawkesbury Island on Saturday, February 14. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Marine park sighting<\/p>\n

Pearl farmer Rusty Tully, who lives on Turtle Head Island, 18km south of the Cape York tip, said a local man arrived at his place wanting to use his phone on Sunday to notify Border Force of a boat.<\/p>\n

He said the man had spotted a vessel near Trochus Island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.<\/p>\n

“You’ve done more than penetrate Australian waters when you get this far,” Mr Tully said.<\/p>\n

“Just for the boats to be in the Torres Strait, it’s downright disgusting, not for the employees of Border Force, but the top down.<\/p>\n

“Those guys have not come this far into Australian waters with good intent.”<\/p>\n

Mr Tully, who lives alone on his pearl farm with his wife, said the frequent border incursions left them vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Border Force boat off the coast of Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Call for briefings<\/p>\n

Torenzo Elisala, councillor for the Dauan Island division of Torres Strait Island Regional Council, said residents felt “violated” by the boat sightings but he was most concerned about fish stocks.<\/p>\n

“It definitely is an invasion,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are threatened; we are feeling violated and the answers are just not there.”<\/p>\n

Torres Shire Mayor Elsie Seriat said her community was also “very worried”.<\/p>\n

“We just don’t know what they’re carrying \u2014 whether they’re here to fish, whether they’re here to plant something,” she said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Ms Seriat received a photo from a family member of a boat near Hawkesbury Island, about an hour from Thursday Island.<\/p>\n

“They were scared when they saw that illegal fishing boat so close,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They even told me the guys on board [the foreign boat] looked surprised.”<\/p>\n

Ms Seriat said the region’s leaders wanted a briefing from Border Force’s command on Thursday Island to understand how many boats were being caught and how incursions were being dealt with.<\/p>\n

Two foreign boats intercepted<\/p>\n

Border Force has confirmed it intercepted two foreign fishing boats in the Torres Strait on the weekend \u2014 one near Hawkesbury Island and the other near Thursday Island.<\/p>\n

Officers boarded both boats and found that “illegal foreign fishing activities had not yet occurred”, a Border Force spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Each boat was escorted out of Australian waters and fishing equipment was seized, along with hundreds of kilograms of salt.<\/p>\n

It takes the number of foreign boats caught in Far North Queensland waters illegally since the new year to 13.<\/p>\n

Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said there was “a range of environmental and health reasons to take strong action against illegal fishing”.<\/p>\n

He said a new operation launched by Border Force last week would “continue to drive those boats away”.<\/p>\n

Border Force said one of its weekend interceptions was the result of a report from a member of the public.<\/p>\n

“The ABF appreciates the community’s close engagement with its officers on Thursday Island,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graham Kerridge says he was at the helm of a helicopter over Australian waters when he spotted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[147865,151175,157132,8145,151179,157126,1397,21167,157131,157129,157128,157130,141032,2183,157125,157127,151178,157133,90,157124,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-428523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australian-border-force","9":"tag-biosecurity","10":"tag-border-incursions","11":"tag-border-security","12":"tag-cape-york-peninsula","13":"tag-elsie-seriat","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-far-north-queensland","16":"tag-foreign-fishers","17":"tag-gbk","18":"tag-gbk-land-and-sea-council","19":"tag-gur-a-baradharaw-kod","20":"tag-illegal-fishing","21":"tag-indonesia","22":"tag-jacob-sam","23":"tag-ned-david","24":"tag-northern-peninsula-area","25":"tag-npa","26":"tag-science","27":"tag-torres-pearls","28":"tag-uk","29":"tag-united-kingdom","30":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}