Dolphin meat suspectedly used as bait on fishing boat

There are suspicions that an Indonesian boat caught off the Northern Territory coast could have been using dolphin meat as bait.

The boat was caught late last night in Junction Bay, 50 kilometres west of Maningrida.
Ian Munroe from the Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation says sea rangers believe meat found on the fishing lines was dolphin.

"The rangers have described a meat with a layer of blubber and red flesh underneath it," he said.
Simon Latimer from Customs says he cannot confirm that.

"There has been situations where we have found foreign fishing boats that have been using dolphin for bait but I certainly couldn't comment on this situation until further information became available," he said.

Tissue samples will be sent to Darwin for formal identification.