Stephen Trust and his family-run Trust Trawlers pleaded guilty to retaining 77,670 scallops which were under the 110 millimetre size limit which applied in the area of the Channel where he caught them.
The court was told that Trust Trawlers’ vessel, the Jacomina, was boarded five days after he had left Brixham in January by fishery officers from the fishery protection vessel HMS Tyne. They found the undersized scallops.
Later checks ashore revealed that more than half the number of scallops caught on that trip by the Jacomina had been undersized.
On Friday April 9, magistrates at Torquay were told that the scallops would have attracted a price as high as £14,235.
Prosecuting for the Marine management Organisation, Robert Newman said “Had they been landed that is the price that would have been attracted and that would have been illegal benefit to the company.”
Mr Newman told the court that a major and consistent retention of undersized scallops affected the young stock’s opportunity to reproduce and had a serious impact on the population. It also had an impact on the fishing community and its ability to operate.
The court heard that Trust Trawlers told fishery officers that there had been a mistake in the measuring gauges used by his crew.
Stephen Trust of Elkins Hill, Brixham, and Trust Trawlers were fined a total of £4,000 and ordered to pay £12,000 for the value of the catch and £8,000 costs.
