Last week the skipper and owners of the French trawler "Keriolet" were ordered to pay a total of £10,700 in fines and costs after each pleading guilty at Truro Magistrates Court, Cornwall, UK on 9 May to an offence of under-recording the amount of cod caught, and illegal log book alterations.
The court was told that Marine and Fisheries Agency officers boarded the stern trawler, owned by SAPC, of Concarneau, France, to carry out a routine inspection after the vessel came into Newlyn with a fouled propeller.
The 490kg cod logbook entry looked a less than the pounded cod in the fish room, so the decision was taken to weigh it, the court heard. It was then calculated at 944.72kg liveweight – an under-recording of 48%.
During the boarding the master, Gilles Capitaine, 45, of Rosporden, France, altered the logbook by inserting a 1 in front of the number 20 that was written in the cod column on the third day of fishing, magistrates heard.
