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AN international cod patrol in the North Sea has discovered the possible use of blinders by a Dutch vessel, according to the EU’s Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA).
The Agency saidon Friday that the “possible infringement,” was detected in the course of a joint operation involving three member states,the Netherlands, France and Belgium.
CFCA say that during a control operation on November 8, when the French fisheries monitoring centre (FMC) at Cross a Etel was in charge, the French inspection vessel Themis entered Belgian waters with French European Union inspectors on board, to inspect a Dutch beam trawler.
When the inspector approached the vessel, the skipper ran off the warps from the winches dumping the beam trawls on the sea bed. In a co-ordinated action, the Dutch inspection vessel Barend Biesheuvel went to the location and, as the skipper of the fishing vessel was not willing to be co-operative in bringing the gear above the surface, requested the Dutch coastguard vessel Arca to dredge the net, an operation which lasted two days. In addition, Belgium contributed to the operation, by having their fishing patrol vessel Zeehond dredging and finding the first net.
As a result of the operation, the inspectors found ‘blinders’, illegal gear attachments which obstruct the mesh opening and reduce the selectivity of the net, contravening Commission Regulation EEC 3440/84. In addition, the skipper of the fishing vessel hindered the inspection by obstructing the control operation.
The value of the fish and both port and starboard trawls were confiscated and the fishing vessel’s skipper will be prosecuted in the Netherlands, the Agency added. “This operation has only been possible thanks to the co-operation among the member states authorities in the framework of the joint deployment plan for the cod in the North Sea,” they added.
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