An Indonesian fishing boat has been seized and its crew detained for allegedly operating illegally less than 100km off Western Australia's north coast.
The seizure is the third boat stopped in a week, following 28 Vietnamese fishermen on two boats who were arrested after being caught illegally fishing on the other side of the country in the Great Barrier Reef in far north Queensland.
The Indonesian vessel KM Masrawati was spotted by an Australian Border Force surveillance plane about 10 nautical miles from Colbert Island, near WA's north coast.
A navy boat intercepted the Indonesians and detained the eight crew members who were taken to Darwin for questioning by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.
Border Force officials found fishing equipment, including a 50-metre-long gill net, long lines, hooks for shark species and reef shoes used for walking across reefs to collect sea cucumber.
Maritime Border Command's Rear Admiral Peter Laver said the number of such cases had fallen substantially in the last decade from 367 in 2005-06 to 13 in northern waters since July 2015.
The AFMA's general manager of operations Peter Venslovas said Australian agencies were working with regional countries to ensure the nation's marine resources were not plundered.
"Those fishing illegally in Australian waters are breaking the very rules and regulations that we have in place to ensure sustainable Commonwealth fisheries now and into the future," Mr Venslovas said.
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