BELGIAN TRAWLER FINED FOR ILLEGAL FISHING

26 Apr 2006 05:45 PM

The owners and master of a Belgium trawler, Blue Angel (Z60) from Ostend, have been fined £4500 and ordered to pay both legal and investigation costs totaling £2500 at Brighton Magistrates Court for hindering a routine boarding inspection and illegally dumping fishing gear at sea.

The Belgian trawler was detained on 24th April and escorted to Shoreham by Royal Navy fishery protection vessel HMS Severn.

Paul Johnson, Senior Fisheries Officer from Defra's Marine Fisheries Agency, said:

"Any vessel, regardless of nationality, fishing in British waters is subject to routine inspections which are designed to protect the interests of the fishing industry as a whole.

"We are committed to pursuing everyone who fishes illegally in British waters. Today's fines reflect the serious nature of the offences committed. Fisheries enforcement is an important way of ensuring the long term sustainability of our fishing industry."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The Court case was heard at Brighton Magistrates Court 26th April.

1. The Common Fisheries Policy established access to a common fisheries resource and set out arrangements by which each member state's fishing fleet has a fair opportunity to exploit fish stocks in a managed and sustainable way.

2. Enforcement of fisheries regulations at sea is undertaken on behalf of Defra by the Royal Navy Fisheries Protection Squadron and their role is to inspect vessels on the fishing grounds. UK registered vessels are inspected within UK Fishery Limits and on the high seas, foreign flag vessels are liable to inspection by the RN whenever they operate within UK Fishery Limits. HMS Severn is based in Portsmouth and is an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) River Class.

3. The EU fisheries regulations cover all areas including the technical matters such as mesh sizes, minimum fish sizes, restrictions on types of fish fishing gear, vessel specifications etc. The set of control regulations require fishing vessels to complete logbooks and landing declarations etc. and also require masters to comply with the instructions of inspectors when they wish to inspect their fishing vessels. This EU regulation (1382/87) is brought into UK law by the Fisheries Act 1981 and the Enforcement of Community Control Measures SI No 51 of 2000.

4. If the master of a fishing vessel does not comply with the requirement to facilitate a boarding at sea and delays or prevents the inspection of his vessel and fishing gear on the fishing grounds then he undermines the enforcement of the regulations at sea. It becomes impossible to ensure that gear, fish sizes, logbook completion rules are complied with, and widespread non-compliance weakens the conservation measures the majority of fishermen agree with and adhere to.

The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) Regulations1998 originate from the provisions contained in Annex V of MARPOL 73/78.
Garbage from ships can be just as deadly to marine life as oil or chemicals.

Offences: Master & Owner
Obstruction of a BSFO £100 £1000
Failure to provide boarding ladder £100 £1000
MARPOL £200 £2000

Legal costs £1376.70
Investigation costs £1079.00
TOTAL £6855.70

The vessel remains in detention at Shoreham by order of the court until fines and costs are fully paid.

Fisheries Charges were brought under the Sea Fisheries Control Regulations 2000.

The defendants were:

Hendick De Vries (Skipper) Shamrock Ltd of URK (Owner) of Belgian Beam Trawler Blue Angel Z60

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