FISHING skipper Ramon Martinez and the Spanish owners of his UK-registered vessel, the Greenwich, have been fined a total of £45,000 at Dingwall Sheriff Court for "massive" overfishing of shark quota.
The fines were for admitted overfishing of two species that are at risk - siki sharks, commonly called Portuguese dogfish, and leafscale gulper sharks.
It was stated in court, that Britain had to give the Spanish Government 60 tonnes of this year's valuable West of Scotland (Area 6) monkfish quota as compensation for Spain's loss of deep-sea sharks because so much siki and leafscale gulper sharks were taken by the Greenwich.
But any special compensation deal was denied tonight by Defra, the UK fisheries department.
However, in court, defence agent and Aberdeen solicitor Dennis Yule, said it was skipper Martinez's honesty in accurately recording his catches in the Greenwich's log sheets that resulted in the prosecution.
"The Crown's position is that this is not simply a breach of regulations, it is more a serious environmental crime," said the procurator fiscal, Roderick Urquhart, explaining the case against Martinez and the Greenwich's owners, the Falmouth-based company Sealskill.
The court was told that following investigation of the Greenwich's catch by fishery officers at Ullapool on December 14 last year and subsequent examination of log sheets which had previously been submitted to Defra, it was found that the Greenwich had caught twelve times the total UK quota in area 12 for that year and 1,200 times the 100 kilogram by-catch the Greenwich was allowed to take in area 12 on each fishing trip.
Tonight, Defra defended their role in the issue:.
A spokeswoman said:
"Defra officials immediately acted to close the fishery as soon the UK overfish was identified and asked colleagues to instigate enforcement action against vessels overfishing the UK quota at the same time.
" Officials were able to cover the overfish at the end of 2005 from quota which was not going to be utilised by other UK fishermen.
"Fishing trips by some UK registered Spanish owned vessels can last 2-3 months, occasionally if a vessel has been fishing for a prolonged period we may not receive details of its catch until after it has landed.
"The UK has not compensated the Spanish for the overfish.Defra
officials undertook a straightforward transfer of quota at the end of the year which was a swap with Spain, the UK received shark XII quota from Spain and in return Spain received UK anglerfish (monkfish) quota to reduce their 2005 overfish of Area VII anglerfish."
www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
- 19 - 20 May, 2010
AquacultureUK2010
- Iceland fish group denies British Seafood...
- Fish dealer Seatek in administration
- Fishing pirates suffer major defeat
- British Seafood crisis deepens
- Shock as British Seafood Group goes into a...
- Turn 1m tonnes of dumped fish into ‘super...
- FAO wants aquaculture best practice review
- Seafish makes key aquaculture appointment
- Loch Duart get the look
- Chile starts to rebuild shattered fishing...
