The Indonesian Navy and Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on Monday proudly blew up the unlawful fishing vessel Viking within the shallow waters simply the district of Pangandaran in West Java.

The fishing vessel is the final of the so-called “Bandit 6” toothfish poaching vessels, which have been illegally fishing for Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish within the Southern Ocean for over a decade.

On hand to witness the explosion was Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti in addition to representatives of the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd, who’ve claimed victory towards the infamous poaching vessels after chasing them round Southern Ocean as a part of the group’s Operation Icefish marketing campaign.

Operation Icefish 2015-16 Campaign Leader, Captain Siddharth Chakravarty, stated, “In a span of just 15 months, Sea Shepherd has cleaned up the Southern Ocean of illegal fishing. An issue that was largely thought to be unsolvable under current international legal instruments was confronted and dealt with using two direct-action, at-sea campaigns. Six of the most notorious and persistent poaching vessels on this planet are now out of commission making this one of the biggest successes in marine conservation history.”

Sea Shepherd first centered its consideration on the unlawful operations of the six vessels in 2014 when it launched Operation Icefish; the group’s first marketing campaign to focus on unlawful, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing within the Southern Ocean. By April 2015, Sea Shepherd vessels with Operation Icefish had chased down probably the most infamous poaching vessel, the FV Thunder, drawing worldwide consideration after the chase was featured within the New York Times sequence The Outlaw Ocean. 

“The campaign, which lasted for over five months and saw the historical and world-famous chase of the most notorious of the poaching vessels, Thunder, by the Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, spawned international efforts that caused massive disruptions to the illegal toothfish trade,” Sea Shepherd stated in a press release launched Monday.

A month after the Thunder sank, two extra of the vessels have been apprehended in Cabo Verde, West Africa, and one other was detained in Malaysia. Finally in February of 2016, Sea Shepherd introduced that authorities in Senegal arrested the fifth vessel, adopted by the arrest of the Viking by Indonesian Navy on February twenty sixth when the ship entered the nation’s waters. 

Captain Hammarstedt stated, “The success of the Operation Icefish campaigns would not have been possible without the backing of our supporters. Their unwavering support for our on-going mission to defend, conserve and protect the world’s oceans has made the abolition of the Bandit 6 from the Southern Ocean possible. To them, we extend our gratitude as they share with us in this massive victory.”

The sinking was hailed by Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, hoping that seize of the Victory would ship a powerful message to the opposite unlawful ship poachers of the world. Video on the backside. 

Some video from the sinking right here: