THE skipper and owner of a Dutch beam trawler have together been presented with a bill of more than £12,000 in fines and costs for various fishing offences after the vessel was arrested off the UK East Coast.
The vessel, the Cornelis Jannetje was detained by a British Sea Fishery Officer embarked on the Dutch fishery protection boat Barend Biesheuvel and brought into Great Yarmouth.
Inspection of the fishing vessel revealed a concealed fish room with its own refrigeration unit and empty boxes behind a panel in the main fish room. Two boxes of Sole were discovered in this fish room, of which approximately 67 per cent were below the minimum permitted size. Further investigation revealed that the quantity of sole retained on board had also been under-recorded in the logbook and exceeded the permitted eight per cent logbook tolerance.
In the case brought by the Marine and Fisheries Agency, the master and the owner of the Cornelis Jannetje subsequently pleaded guilty to the three fishery offences and were ordered to pay £6,740 each in fines and costs by Great Yarmouth Magistrates.
For the offence of exceeding the permitted eight per cent logbook tolerance for sole in the North sea they were each fined £1,640; for retaining under-sized sole, £180 each; having an inaccurate fish room plan – the hidden fish room – also £180 each.They were each additionally fined £2,225 to the value of the catch and ordered to pay costs of £2,500 each.
Beam trawlers are sometimes seen as controversial vessels because many environmental groups blame them for destroying fish stocks.
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