A Coast Guard team from Honolulu boarded a California-based fishing boat about a mile off shore at 2:30 a.m. yesterday to make sure it was seaworthy and carried required safety and lifesaving equipment, a Coast Guard official said.

The Lady Christine, which left Ensenada, Mexico, for Honolulu about two weeks ago, was found to have the proper equipment.

However, after the Lady Christine docked, the Coast Guard issued the vessel's master a notice of violation for failing to have a permit to transport passengers.

"The boarding team members were told there were 19 passengers who were picked up in Mexico, but there were only 14 when the boarding team arrived," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Marsha Delaney. "The vessel's master said the other five had already been transferred to other fishing vessels."

Delaney said U.S. customs officials had alerted the Coast Guard about the Lady Christine.

The passengers aboard the fishing boat said they are from the Philippines and were flown from Manila to Los Angeles about three weeks ago, were bused to Ensenada and boarded the Lady Christine for the two-week voyage to Hawai'i.

The men were headed here to work on American-owned fishing boats, officials said.

While recruiting foreign nationals to work as crew members on American-owned fishing boats and then having them take a circuitous route in getting them here might seem curious, the practice has been going on for years and is entirely legal, officials from the Coast Guard and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday.

The foreigners are allowed to work aboard the American fishing boats as long as they never set foot on U.S. soil. Because they can't step on U.S. soil, crew members embark from another country and are transferred from one vessel to another at sea.

Fishermen also are recruited from Indonesia and Micronesia to work on the longline boats.

Tuang Nguyen of Honolulu owns the longline boat Blue Dragon, which had taken aboard two of the crewmen from the Lady Christine. Nguyen said he would be driven out of business if he had a crew of U.S. citizens, who would be paid at least $2,000 a month.

His five-man crew comprises a Vietnamese-American skipper from California and Filipino fishermen. He said the fishermen are paid $400 a month.

"They are happy — they work hard and no cause any trouble with the captain," Nguyen said.

He said some foreigners will work for as little as $200 a month.