Dutch captain breached EU regulations in Irish waters

The captain of a factory ship accused of having equipment on board capable of dumping fish overboard was found guilty of the offence by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where penalty was adjourned until July 27.

Klass Dirk Meijvogel, of Jan Tooropstraut, 9 Katwick, Netherlands, had pleaded not guilty to the offence detected on an inspection of the vessel, Wiron 5, on February 11, 2015.

Since January of this year, EU regulations have made it illegal to discharge or return pelagic fish such as herring, mackerel or horse mackerel to the sea after they are caught.

The Wiron 5 was boarded by the Irish Naval Service on the day as part of routine inspection. The factory ship was catching and processing pelagic fish.

Sub Lt Niall McCarthy said he noticed an automatic grading system running from the stern of the boat where caught fish were passed over a hole and smaller fish fell through into a chute running beneath. He also noted the automatic grading system then carried into a manual grading area near the bow, where fish could be sorted with the same chute carrying on beneath the sorting area.

The chute carried back to a sump at the stern of the boat where small and broken fish could be collected and discharged into the sea via a vortex pump, he said.

He saw seven small and broken horse mackerel coming through the chute and warned Meijvogel that he believed the automatic grading equipment was in breach of EU regulations.

Cross-examined by solicitor Dermot Conway, for Meijvogel, Sub Lt McCarthy accepted the Wiron 5 was catching around 350,000 fish — or 40 to 50 tonnes of fish per day for processing.

Sea Fisheries Protection officer John Hederman also testified to seeing both automatic grading equipment and a manual grading area for fish.

Asked about the regulation, Mr Hederman explained that larger fish were worth more per tonne than smaller fish and therefore a catch of larger fish was more commercially lucrative.

The risk with an automatic grading system is that it can lead to the discarding of legal but less valuable smaller fish as skippers seek to keep larger more valuable fish to fill their quota.

Mr Hederman agreed that he had not inspected any of the cartons on the Wiron 5 to see if they contained smaller fish.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin remanded Meigvogel on bail for penalty next month.