Bart Bear's Blog

Here's a boat that has been in the news a lot here in Australia. It is the Customs and Fisheries vessell "Oceanic Viking". Its job is to keep foreign poachers from stealing Australia's fish and to catch smugglers. We hear about it occasionally catching fishermen who are over-fishing and are catching things like the rare Toothfish. The "Viking" was on TV almost every night a few weeks ago because it had been caught up in an embarassing international problem. It had picked up a sinking load of boat people, who were trying to sneak into Australia illegally, and then couldn't find anywhere to unload them. They had come via Indonesia, but Indonesia didn't want them, and they didn't want to go back to where they had come from. It took weeks before the Australian and Indonesian governments sorted the problem out, and all that time the "Viking" was stuck off Indonesia with a load of passengers nobody wanted. I don't understand why people try to sneak into Australia like that. If they just go about it the right way, through the proper channels, they can usually come anyway, provided they aren't criminals or terrorists or other nasty types. Scruffy and I saw the "Oceanic Viking" earlier this year on our way from Perf to Rottnest Island. It was berthed in Fremantle harbour, being stocked up for a patrol in the cold ocean between Australia and Antarctica.

Labels: boats, Perth, Western Australia