The Court of Appeal has dismissed Gerrit Plug’s appeal against three convictions arising from fishing operations by the vessel Annelies Ilena off County Donegal in November 2013. The convictions and fines of €35,000 on each count therefore remain in place.
Plug, a Dutch citizen and master of the vessel, was convicted at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court on 27 March 2015. The charges concerned failing to record discards above the prescribed threshold, discarding quota species that could legally be landed, and exceeding the permitted spacing between bars in a water separator. The appeal judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Mahon on 29 July 2016.
The court rejected Plug’s argument that the first count should not have gone to the jury because he had until midnight to update or transmit his electronic logbook. It distinguished the duty to record estimated discards above 50kg from the separate duty to transmit logbook information. The court said recording was required on an ongoing basis, and that information had to be provided at the time of an inspection at sea. Officers found 53.04kg of discards during the 22 November 2013 inspection, while the information given to them showed none. The trial judge was entitled to leave the charge to the jury.
On the quota species count, the appeal court said evidence included intact horse mackerel longer than the 15cm minimum size being returned through a chute described by the master as leading to the sea. The court said the size of the fish, rather than their weight, was relevant to that offence. It upheld the trial judge’s decision to leave the count to the jury.
The third appeal ground concerned measurements taken on 24 November, two days after the vessel was boarded and detained at Killybegs. Some gaps between separator bars exceeded 16mm, against a stated maximum of 10mm for EU fishing waters. The court held that the jury could consider whether the measurements reflected the gaps on 22 November: the vessel had not been fishing while detained, and there was no evidence the bars had been altered. The court also found evidence that the vessel was pelagic, targeted mackerel and horse mackerel, and was in the relevant fisheries area.
Count two had been the subject of a nolle prosequi, and directions had been given on counts four and six. The appeal was dismissed in full.