An Indonesian fishing camp has been discovered on Australia's northern coast, raising concerns that illegal crews were able to come and go undetected.
The piles of litter and skinned sharks were found on Niiwalarra, or Sir Graham Moore Island, off Western Australia's Kimberley coast, about 2,800 kilometres north of Perth and 1,300km west of Darwin.
Veteran skipper Steve Hinge was shocked to come across the shark carcasses and litter during a visit with his wife in May.
"It was clearly stuff from Indonesia. There were products from Jakarta and rubbish covered in Bahasa Indonesian language," he says.
"They'd definitely camped there for more than a few days as there'd been fires on the beach, dried fish on the rocks, and structures that had been pulled down.
"I was pretty horrified to think they'd managed to get so close."
Mr Hinge reported the find to federal authorities later that month but did not hear anything back.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) did not respond to questions about the camp but said in a statement it was not always possible to confirm activities or actions taken in response to reports it received.
"Through Maritime Border Command, ABF regularly coordinates patrols across the north of Australia, including in locations such as Sir Graham Moore Island," a spokesperson said.
"We urge members of the community who witness suspicious border-related activity to report it to borderwatch.gov.au."
Island with a complex history
Indonesian fishers have been visiting the island for hundreds of years, with archaeological evidence revealing large-scale trepang (or sea cucumber) processing on local beaches in the 1800s.
Kwini traditional owners have been interacting with visiting foreign fishing crews for centuries on Niiwalarra.
It is now part of the Niiwalarra Islands National Park and sits within a broader WA marine park.
The island is hundreds of kilometres from where Indonesian crews are permitted to conduct traditional fishing in the Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, Box.
This is an area inside Australian waters of the Timor Sea where Indonesian traditional fishers, using traditional fishing methods only, are permitted to operate.
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) says it conducts regular patrols of the marine park, with a visit scheduled for next month.
"Staff will also be carrying out routine fauna monitoring surveys," a DBCA spokesperson said.
"These surveys would identify any concerns around introduced species.
"Visitors to Niiwalarra should be aware that it is unlawful to camp on the islands and should follow the rules around waste and rubbish disposal."
The Kimberley coastline has come under increasing pressure from illegal foreign fishing in recent years, with the pandemic fuelling a significant surge in boats.
Camp raises security concerns
Mr Hinge has run commercial fishing boats in northern waters for two decades and says the camp's discovery raises a lot of questions.
"It's very disturbing — we've got Border Force meant to be keeping an eye on things, but these guys seem to have gone under their radar, set-up camp, and then escaped without being seen," he said.
"It makes you wonder about how efficient they are [at] keeping an eye on things.
"And then you've got the biosecurity risk; there might be nothing but you just don't know what animals or diseases or plants could have been brought in."
WA Member for Mining and Pastoral Neil Thomson says more needs to be done to curb the "exploding" number of Indonesian boats approaching the northern coast, especially with the country's foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.
"We must do more to stop this happening," he said.
"There's been a very big increase in illegal fishing boats and brazen activity going on along the coast, and [this camp] this surprisingly close.
"It poses a huge biosecurity threat to our state, impacts on our very fragile and beautiful environment, and poses of course a national security risk."
The number of boats entering Australian waters is expected to reduce in the coming months with the onset of the monsoon season.
However, the death of nine Indonesian fishermen in February highlighted how fishers continue to make the difficult journey to harvest marine life like shark and trepang.
