Gibbons said he immediately coordinated with the fishing boats nearby after he received information from the Philippine Coast Guard about the missing boat coming from the Southern Philippines.
“We monitor other fishing boats through Vessel Monitoring System, regardless of country’s registry and tell them to keep an eye for missing boats.” Gibbons said.
The minister, however, said that until now they have not seen any fishing vessel from the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) within the Palau waters.
He said they are still awaiting latest information on the missing boat.
The Philippine Coast Guard on Tuesday started search and rescue operations for a fishing boat that went missing after leaving Davao City and straying into Indonesian waters, reports stated.
Accorcing to the news article, Commodore Lino Dabi, commander of the Coast Guard District South, said the incident was reported Monday morning by Ted Okubo, a Japanese and operations manager of Sanko Pacific Tuna Inc. based in Toril district in Davao City.
Dabi said F/B Kairo Maru, with one Japanese national and 8 Filipino crew onboard, departed the Davao Port Complex around 7 a.m. last Friday en-route to Palau island to go fishing.
He said the tuna company last made contact with the boat on Saturday at 6:58 a.m.
Dabi said the fishing boat was then at the vicinity 60 nautical miles northeast of Talaud island in Indonesia.
The Coast Guard has issued a notice to vessels in the south to be on the look-out for the fishing boat.