Irish fishing industry is watching with interest as charges officially brought against Dutch-owned, German-registered vessel
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The skipper of the 116m trawler, Helen Mary, is facing seven charges of infringements of EU fisheries regulations including “failure to provide a boarding ladder to facilitate safe and convenient access to the boat, which is required to be in good order and be efficient for the purpose of enabling inspectors to embark and disembark safely at sea” - - this case will be heard at District Court but the other, more serious charges, will be heard in the presence of a jury.
Of major significance is the finding of equipment on board Helen Mary capable of automatically grading Horse Mackerel by size where no derogation was provided for such.
This find will immediately increase the long-held suspicion in Ireland that the practice of ‘high grading’ (grading the flow of fish to only retain the larger sizes and dump the lower quality fish back into the sea) has been going on for many years on such vessels operating in Irish waters.
Adding fuel to these allegations is the charge for the finding of an additional (unauthorised) pump which, it would reportedly appear, was used for driving unwanted fish back into the sea.
Further charges also include: failing to have onboard a discharge capability drawing certified by the competent authorities, and failing to have onboard a drawing which related to the catch-handling capability.
The vessel Master also faces a charge of failing to comply with a direction made by a Sea Fisheries Protection Authority inspector on Sunday 16 February.
The State has released the vessel Master on bail on his own bond of €10,000 given "a very significant bond" of €425,000 has been entered into for the release of the vessel, which was expected to depart from today.
Judge Dorgan remanded the trawler's master on bail to appear before Cork Circuit Criminal Court on 28 April.
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COMMENT
Given the fact that the breach of any one of the above-named regulations by an Irish fishing vessel or an Irish processing company would result in the full weight of the law coming down on them in terms of massive penalties, the Irish fishing industry will be watching with great interest as to how this case is dealt with on April 28th.
While the absence of a proper boarding ladder may be a minor technical matter, all of the other charges being brought are extremely serious and, in particular, the presence of an unexplained and unauthorised grading system should in itself be enough for the courts to ‘throw the book’ at the offenders.
A successful prosecution in this case will also give encouragement for further EFCA / SFPA inspections of more of these types of vessels in Irish waters and to eventually stamp out the illegal fishing activities that many believe has been going on for decades.
However, the cynics amongst us are already pointing to the possibility of EU ‘interference’ in the Irish legal system as this is a Dutch-owned vessel - one of a fleet of such vessels that the EU Commission holds in high esteem as being beyond reproach - and the finding of any possible illegal activity will not only reflect poorly on the Dutch industry but on the Commission itself.
Also of interest is the strong relationship between EFCA (who led this investigation) and DG Mare, the fisheries arm of the EU Commission and, with no fewer than FOUR Netherlands MEPs sitting on the EU’s PECH committee, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that there may be unofficial instructions to ‘call off the dogs’.
Either way, the laws are there for a reason and, as in past cases of lesser charges against Irish fishermen, the SFPA constantly repeat that breaches of EU fisheries regulations will not be accepted and must be dealt with through severe penalties - - we all now wait to see if the Irish legal system will (a) use its full force at its disposal to punish those if proven to be destroying Irish fish stocks; and (b) to vehemently resist any hint of interference in this case from the EU Commission.
See RTÉ link:
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