News from the waters near Alaska. A large fishing boat about 3,000 miles from the coast of Alaska was asked to identify itself was unable to do so. It was seized by the US Coast Guard but not brought to shore because of a rat infestation.

The vessel Bangun Perkasa didn’t have a valid flag state registration, and Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Sara Francis said it was seized Sept. 7 as a stateless vessel for allegedly violating U.S. laws.

[…]

…crewmen were trying to dump the net when the Coast Guard boarded the ship about 2,600 miles southwest of Kodiak. The Coast Guard retrieved the net, and then found 30 tons of squid and 30 shark carcasses on board, she said.

Officials did not find proper documentation on board, however.

“No license or permits, and no records of their catch,” Francis said.

The Coast Guard also discovered rats on board.

30 tons of illegal squid! That’s just what they kept on board. Illegal giant drift nets kill huge numbers of fragile marine life so who knows what the true toll was. Whales and turtles are devastated by these boats.

Dumping 10 miles of net like a piece of garbage overboard also is an incredibly malicious maneuver. All that aside I find the most interesting part of this story in the failure to provide a valid certificate and then the failed authentication process.

The ship’s crew initially claimed Indonesia as their flag state.

“When we contacted Indonesia, they said, ‘Nope, not ours,'” Francis said. “They became flagless at that point, and that’s when we seized them.”

Although, in terms of analysis, I also find this part amusing

“Given the catch they had, I would assume they were a squid boat.”

Not a rat boat?