Pirate fishing ship wrecks on famed Bali surf break

photo by Jon/Uluwatuphoto

Some amazing photos from Surfline showing the wreck of the 115 ft Taiwanese ship Ho Tsai Fa BJ4699 against the reef at Padang Padang in Bali.

Greenpeace reported that the ship is an illegal longliner and had been chased for months around the coast of Java.
Greenpeace has a video of the ship on youtube.

Local surfers and environmentalists tried to tow the ship off the reef during a recent high tide but were unable to get enough local cooperation to make it work. Sadly, the ship is probably going to be in the surf break for many years to come.
The World Surfing Championship in Bali has already been canceled due to the wreck.

The break seems surfable but the ensuing mess from fuel and oil has ruined things for quite a while.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that the ship is no longer illegally fishing and the catch was still frozen when it landed, providing the local village with all the fish they could stand for a while.
Let's hope the ship breaks up soon or heads up higher onto the reef where it won't mess up this world class break.