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The owner and the master of a Dutch fishing vessel have been fined £51,000 (EUR 58,549) after a Royal Navy patrol ship caught the vessel with nets illegally adapted to catch baby fish.
HMS Severn's boarding team surprised the fishermen on board the trawler Hanny some 150 nmi (278km) from the British coast in the North Sea.
The team got on board and quickly saw that both fishing nets had been deliberately constricted or “blinded,” an illegal technique that prevents juvenile fish from escaping the net. It also causes serious damage to the fishery, with up to 40 per cent of the fish caught being discarded.
In consultation with the headquarters of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), the team decided to detain the Hanny for further investigation by the MMO Coastal Office in North Shields.
The trawler's master, Sebastian De Vries, and its owner, Maatschap De Vries, appeared in North Shields Magistrates Court last week and admitted the charge of “using illegal gear attachments on the port and starboard cod ends”.
The men were each fined £ 1,000 (EUR 1,148) for the illegal attachment, £ 8,750 (EUR 10,045) for the value of the catch, £14,000 (EUR 16,072) for the value of the gear, a £15 (EUR17.22) victim surcharge and £1,761 (EUR 2,022) legal and investigation costs, for a total of £51,052 (EUR 58,609).
"The illegal use of blinded nets within the fragile fisheries of the UK is extremely irresponsible and risks the livelihood of hundreds of fishermen who are reliant on their sustainability,” said the Commanding Officer of the River Class offshore patrol vessel HMS Severn, Lieutenant Commander Marcus Hember. "These are extremely difficult offences to detect and, unless we are able to catch offenders red-handed, impossible to prove.”
Lieutenant Carter, who led the inspection, hopes the event will deter other vessels using similar techniques.
HMS Severn has conducted 240 boardings so far this year, of which 110 have resulted in the detection of infringements of European Union (EU) or UK law. Last year, Severn detained seven fishing vessels in port for further investigation, and the Dutch vessel is the third to be detained in 2011.
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