LÉ Róisín chief ordered officers onto world’s largest trawler, court told

The former skipper of the Irish naval vessel LÉ Róisín on Thursday told of the day he ordered his officers to board the world’s largest trawler off Tory Island when it was suspected of breaching EU fishing regulations.

Terence Ward, now a retired lieutenant commander, said he was in charge of the LÉ Róisín on fishery patrol in the Atlantic on November 22nd, 2013 when he instructed naval and sea fisheries protection officers to board the 14,000 tonne Annelies Ilena.

He told Donegal Circuit Court he was in communication with the officers and he was kept apace of what was happening when the master of the 144m Annelies Ilena was cautioned.

One of the men who boarded the super-trawler from a rigid inflatable speedboat despatched by the LÉ Róisín was Killybegs-based Sea Fisheries protection officer John Hederman.

He told Judge John O’Hagan and a jury of six women and six men of observing a large number of sea-birds that appeared to be feeding behind the trawler before he boarded.

Minimum size

Mr Hederman said production on board the trawler was stopped while officers carried out an investigation, during which it was established some of the fish were “well below” the minimum allowed size.

After the vessel was detained and it was making its way to Killybegs, he allowed production to resume.

He said he was told by the second mate of the trawler, in front of his master, Gerrit Plug, that the log book was up to date and there had been no discards of fish.

Mr Plug told him it was his intention to update the log book – and said he wasn’t “high-grading” fish to increase the value of the catch.

Mr Hederman said when he again inspected the vessel two days later when it was detained at Killybegs, he formed the view the entire catch of fish was being “pre-graded” when brought aboard, because bars on water separator mechanisms were much wider apart than the legal limit.

Log deadline

He told Richard Lyons, SC, defending, that he was aware the trawler skipper had until midnight on the date of the alleged offence to update his log.

Mr Hederman said he did not inspect the log after he examined it earlier in the day on the bridge, and he hadn’t inspected it since.

The Annelies Ilena was formerly the Atlantic Dawn when it operated out of Killybegs.

Gerrit Plug (58), the Dutch national skipper of the Annelies Ilena, has pleaded not guilty to discarding species of fish which are subject to quota, failing to record discards and having illegal equipment on board.

The prosecution has claimed that the Annelies Ilena had illegal equipment which was grading the fish to increase the value of the catch and discarding fish straight back out to sea which should have been kept.

The State’s case is that this was an ongoing, systematic practice on board the vessel.

The trial continues on Friday.