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[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Fishing]
Shetland trawlermen illegally caught £15m worth of herring and mackerel
Six skippers face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders after admitting breaching fishing quotas
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 17.45 BST
Article history
Six trawlermen from Shetland face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders for illegally landing £15m worth of herring and mackerel to cheat strict quotas designed to conserve fish stocks.
The six skippers from Lerwick admitted today that they made false declarations about the true size of their catch after nearly 200 voyages between January 2002 and March 2005, deliberately breaching their own annual fishing quotas.
Their conviction followed a long-running investigation by police and the Scottish fisheries protection agency which also led to guilty pleas from a Lerwick-based fish wholesalers Shetland Catch Ltd for supplying false reports about the size of the landings.
The case is one of the largest-ever involving so-called "black landings", the illegal practice once widespread in Scottish ports where skippers deliberately caught and landed fish which breached quotas, in defiance of European conservation measures.
The practice has largely died out, but Scott Pattison, director of operations with Scotland's prosecution authority, the Crown Office, said there were other similar investigations under way.
"This is not a victimless crime. The consequences of overfishing on this scale are far-reaching and the impact on fish stocks and the marine environment is potentially devastating," he said. "The legislation is to protect the marine environment for the good of all and to safeguard the fishing industry."
The six men were caught after the fisheries agency suspected widespread and significant quota breaches. Detailed "forensic accounting" uncovered significant discrepancies between the declared income for Shetland Catch and its actual income.
Detective superintendent Gordon Gibson of Grampian Police, who led the investigation, said: "As can be seen from the pleas tendered today, this was criminality at an extremely high level."
The Scottish mackerel fishery, the largest of its kind for the British fishing industry, is now accredited for its conservation practices by the Marine Stewardship Council.
However, British ministers and industry leaders are currently in a furious dispute with Iceland and the Faroes for dramatically increasing their self-declared mackerel quotas. Last week, one Faroese boat was blockaded at the quayside by angry local skippers in Peterhead.
Precise details were released after the hearing at the high court in Glasgow about the scale of the illegal landings by all six men, who had shared three trawlers.
Robert John Polson, 47, made 46 "black" landings worth £3,682,000, and David Kay Hutchison, 64, made 49 landings worth £3,698,433, from the vessel Charisma; Thomas Sutherland Eunson, 55, made 18 illegal landings worth £1,457,243, and Allen Magnus Anderson, 44, made four undeclared landings valued at £442,168 from the trawler Serene; while John Arthur Irvine, 66, made 56 landings worth £3,658,981 and Allister Irvine, 61, made 25 landings worth £1,828,981 from the Zephyr.
European and British fisheries legislation requires skippers to make full declarations of their catch sizes, including the species of fish caught, within 48 hours of landing their catch in port, at the time to within 80% accuracy.
All six men are due to be sentenced in November, when they face unlimited fines. The Crown Office added that it was also pursuing a confiscation order under proceeds of crime legislation of up to £15m against all the accused. As a result of their conviction, they have also had their quotas of mackerel and herring drastically reduced between 2007 and 2012.
[guardian.co.uk > Environment > Fishing]
Shetland trawlermen illegally caught £15m worth of herring and mackerel
Six skippers face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders after admitting breaching fishing quotas
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 August 2010 17.45 BST
Article history
Six trawlermen from Shetland face unlimited fines and multi-million pound confiscation orders for illegally landing £15m worth of herring and mackerel to cheat strict quotas designed to conserve fish stocks.
The six skippers from Lerwick admitted today that they made false declarations about the true size of their catch after nearly 200 voyages between January 2002 and March 2005, deliberately breaching their own annual fishing quotas.
Their conviction followed a long-running investigation by police and the Scottish fisheries protection agency which also led to guilty pleas from a Lerwick-based fish wholesalers Shetland Catch Ltd for supplying false reports about the size of the landings.
The case is one of the largest-ever involving so-called "black landings", the illegal practice once widespread in Scottish ports where skippers deliberately caught and landed fish which breached quotas, in defiance of European conservation measures.
The practice has largely died out, but Scott Pattison, director of operations with Scotland's prosecution authority, the Crown Office, said there were other similar investigations under way.
"This is not a victimless crime. The consequences of overfishing on this scale are far-reaching and the impact on fish stocks and the marine environment is potentially devastating," he said. "The legislation is to protect the marine environment for the good of all and to safeguard the fishing industry."
The six men were caught after the fisheries agency suspected widespread and significant quota breaches. Detailed "forensic accounting" uncovered significant discrepancies between the declared income for Shetland Catch and its actual income.
Detective superintendent Gordon Gibson of Grampian Police, who led the investigation, said: "As can be seen from the pleas tendered today, this was criminality at an extremely high level."
The Scottish mackerel fishery, the largest of its kind for the British fishing industry, is now accredited for its conservation practices by the Marine Stewardship Council.
However, British ministers and industry leaders are currently in a furious dispute with Iceland and the Faroes for dramatically increasing their self-declared mackerel quotas. Last week, one Faroese boat was blockaded at the quayside by angry local skippers in Peterhead.
Precise details were released after the hearing at the high court in Glasgow about the scale of the illegal landings by all six men, who had shared three trawlers.
Robert John Polson, 47, made 46 "black" landings worth £3,682,000, and David Kay Hutchison, 64, made 49 landings worth £3,698,433, from the vessel Charisma; Thomas Sutherland Eunson, 55, made 18 illegal landings worth £1,457,243, and Allen Magnus Anderson, 44, made four undeclared landings valued at £442,168 from the trawler Serene; while John Arthur Irvine, 66, made 56 landings worth £3,658,981 and Allister Irvine, 61, made 25 landings worth £1,828,981 from the Zephyr.
European and British fisheries legislation requires skippers to make full declarations of their catch sizes, including the species of fish caught, within 48 hours of landing their catch in port, at the time to within 80% accuracy.
All six men are due to be sentenced in November, when they face unlimited fines. The Crown Office added that it was also pursuing a confiscation order under proceeds of crime legislation of up to £15m against all the accused. As a result of their conviction, they have also had their quotas of mackerel and herring drastically reduced between 2007 and 2012.
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