KUANTAN: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is patrolling the sea round the clock to curb foreign intrusion including scavengers targeting warship wrecks in the country's waters.
Its director-general, Maritime Admiral Datuk Hamid Mohd Amin said between 10 and 12 patrol vessels, and boats were out at sea at any one time to curb illegal activities in Malaysian waters including encroaching for fishing, smuggling and other transnational crimes.
"MMEA's assets including vessels and patrol boats are deployed on rotation and our continuous presence at sea will help eradicate maritime crimes.
"As for the illegal salvage operators preying on sunken warship wrecks on our seabed, I can assure there will be no more such cases and if they attempt to do so then the culprits will have to face severe punishment. At the moment, there are no reports on such presence in our waters.
"Some might target the shipwrecks found off Pahang and Terengganu so we have our assets patrolling the sea. Foreign vessels caught entering Malaysian waters will be prosecuted," he said after MMEA's 19th anniversary celebration today.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah had earlier launched the anniversary celebration at the Sultan Ahmad Shah Maritime Academy near here.
Hamid was replying to a question if illegal salvage operators were still targeting sunken wrecks off Pulau Tioman and the efforts to put an end to the illegal activities.
Last year, it was reported that a foreign-registered grab dredger had returned to plunder the steel and high-grade aluminium from two shipwrecks off Pahang. MMEA later detained the ship in Johor.
Meanwhile, Hamid said MMEA was set to bolster its maritime security with new assets including four units of the AgustaWestland 189 medium-sized helicopters.
"The Home Ministry has already issued the letter of acceptance for the helicopters. The agency received the first offshore patrol vessel (OPV1) last month while OPV2 and OPV3 will be completed by 2026.
"OPV1 is currently stationed in Sarawak and we will conduct a review once the other two vessels are built to determine the suitable location for the assets to be deployed," he said.
Hamid also said MMEA made a total of 1,200 arrests for various offences and conducted 181,000 inspections at sea last year while almost RM101 million in seizures were recorded.