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£67,000 fines for vessels caught illegally fishing for king scallops

Fri, 30 Mar 2018

The skippers and owners of two vessels found to be fishing illegally in Manx waters have been fined a total of £67,000.

Mark Frood, master of the vessel Georg Lou N and Craig Petre of the fishing vessel Philomena were found to be fishing for king scallops without a sea fishing licence.

Frood was fined £15,000 while Petre was handed a £12,000 fine, and both vessels were ordered to surrender their catches, which were worth over £46,000 combined.

The limited companies behind the vessels were each fined £20,000.

The Philomena was found to have more dredges than is permitted in Manx waters while neither was fitted with an Automatic Identification System - which is required by all British vessels of 15 metres or more.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture described it as a completely unacceptable example of illegal fishing which will not be tolerated in Manx waters.

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