TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran seized a foreign fishing boat in the Persian Gulf on Saturday for illegally entering the country's territorial waters, Press TV reported.
The dhow, belonging to an Arab littoral state of the Persian Gulf, was seized after trespassing into the Islamic republic's territorial waters, said the coastguard commander for Iran's southern Kish Island Colonel Rahim Jahanbakhsh.
The seven crew members, who were also detained, were fishing rare species, particularly blacktip and whitetip sharks, Jahanbakhsh was quoted as saying.
Kish maritime forces have seized seven foreign boats and arrested some 50 crew members, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2017), that had illegally entered the country's territorial waters, he said.
They also confiscated some four tonnes of different types of fish from the boats, he added.
The Iranian maritime official emphasized that the naval forces would strongly counter any intrusion into the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.
