UNDER Secretary of Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Feral Lasi revealed that sea cucumbers were among other things found in the blue boats.

He said investigation is ongoing and hopefully after the next two days Fisheries officers will complete the investigation.

He said their officers are just starting the investigation after Customs, Biosecurity officers and other agencies completed their job onboard the boats.

Mr Lasi said charges to be laid on the 43 men arrested depend on the investigations because after the investigations, they will forward the reports to the Attorney General’s Office – this include reports from all agencies involved in the operation.

“So we are looking at the day after tomorrow the reports should be ready,” Mr Lasi said.

He said the men will be dealt with under the local law.

Mr Lasi said the successful arrests of the boat was through a report received from one of the local observers onboard one of the NFD purse seiners.

That observer transmitted the report for sighting the blue boats to the Director and the Director of Fisheries acted on the report and informed the Police Maritime unit of the RSIPF.

He appreciated the response made by the Police Maritime on Thursday last week; the Director informed the Police Maritime and on that same day in the afternoon they responded positively.

He said the report received from the observer said the vessels were sighted East Coast of Malaita but as Patrol boat Auki was ready to take off, one report from Santa Ana called that they sighted the same vessels.

And, while they were on their way to the areas of sighting, the vessels disappeared and the Director informed Forum Fisheries Agency and the Foreign Affairs.

FFA through the Quads Australia, New Zealand France and United States, the Government of France sent in a flight to scout for the vessels and located them at the indispensable reef.

The vessels were resisting arrests, Mr Lasi said.

He said from their action the Police Maritime unit then sent another vessel Patrol Boat Lata which successfully arrested the three blue boats with 43 crews, unfortunately one vessel escaped.

The 43 men are currently under police security at Rove.