Hooks and crooks

Cast your eyes over the milky blue waters of Darwin harbour these days and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were somewhere in Southeast Asia. Dozens of junk-like boats are moored a couple of kilometres offshore, within sight of the tropical city's swanky marina and high-rise office blocks.

They're the most visible sign of the war being waged by Australian authorities in the face of a massive increase in illegal fishing in its northern waters - driven overwhelmingly by the lucrative shark fin trade into Asia. It's a battle that goes on largely without the knowledge of the rest of Australia because the northern coast is so remote and sparsely inhabited.

Darwin is the only city for thousands of kilometres and the only other settlements are small Aboriginal outposts. In this isolated setting, an armada of pirate fishing boats from Indonesia, many employed by Chinese syndicates, are poaching sharks, reef fish and other species in a broad expanse of Australian territorial waters, reaching from the tip of Queensland to Western Australia.

'We suspect there are Chinese criminal cartels behind them,' a government source said. 'Gone are the days of traditional village fishermen. The boats have GPS navigation systems and other sophisticated equipment.'

Smaller vessels are backed up by much larger 'ice boats', mother ships equipped with freezer holds, hi-definition radar and echo sounders.

The booming illegal trade is an issue that will be discussed by senior ministers and officials from Indonesia, Australia and East Timor at a fisheries summit in Canberra today.