Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency has detained 18 Vietnamese fishermen for alleged illegal fishing activities.

The fishermen, aged between 18 and 56 years old, were detained for using illegal trawling nets about 43 nautical miles off the port of Kuala Tanjung.

The agency had detained the group’s first boat at around 7am on Tuesday and the second boat about 40 minutes later on that day.

State media reported that about 4,000 kilograms of fish on the two fishing vessels were also towed.