Residents of Ta’u island spotted and photographed a fishing boat that was about two miles off the coast of Ta’u yesterday.
The name of the vessel is named Adelita and is a US registered vessel but according to Manu’a resident Keith Ah Soon who posted pictures of the boat on the Manu’atele Community Worldwide Face Book page, there was no flag seen on the vessel.
Tau villagers took photos and a video of the vessel in the belief it was fishing illegally in Manu’a waters,
The Coast Guard said this morning it did not have any report about the vessel, but will look into it.
The DPS Marine Patrol told KHJ News they’ve just been alerted about the vessel and will investigate.
The Manu’atele Worldwide Community Page was concerned that coordinates of the vessel placed it in China a few days ago and wanted to let the Coronavirus Task Force know so that precautions can be taken if the vessel docks.
However it appears that the boats GPS data may be out of date or erroneous.
At 6:30 this morning the data showed that Akelita’s position was China, which is impossible if the vessel was only spotted yesterday near Ta’u island.
