THE Naval Service has detained a Spanish fishing vessel with a suspected "secret hold" off the Kerry coastline. If convicted, it will be the first EU case since the Government cracked down on this illegal practice by multiplying the fines.
The detention of the British-registered Spanish fishing vessel Juan Mari, was made 30 miles west of the Blasket Islands yesterday by the naval patrol ship, LE Aisling. The Defence Forces press office confirmed yesterday that it was apprehended for having a false "capacity plan", that is, a store room or hold which is not recorded on the ship's design plans.
The Spanish flagship is due in [Galway early this morning, under escort.
Under the 1994 Fisheries Amendment Act, vessel-owners can face a maximum penalty of £200,000 for this offence, even if the hold is empty of fish or other substances.
The amended legislation increased the penalty tenfold, from £20,000, in an effort to clamp down on the activity within EU waters. The deterrent appeared to have worked, as the last such arrest was recorded two years ago. Coincidentally, that was a British-registered Spaniard.
"Normal" fishery fines amount to around £25,000 to £30,000 a vessel, and the conviction record is very high. There have been only three acquittals in some 80 fisheries cases referred to the Circuit Criminal Court in the past five years.
The first such "secret hold" was identified during a Naval Service inspection of a British-registered Spanish vessel in September 1992. In 1993, 15 vessels were found to have hidden compartments for holding fish in Irish waters, much of it undersized or over the quota for that particular species.
In July 1993 a copy of ITV's Cook Report, which used Naval Service video footage to highlight secret holds, was sent by the British government to the EU Fisheries Commissioner.
The programme recorded undersized fish found in the holds, some of which were juvenile hake for sale on the lucrative Spanish fish market. Many of the vessels had received EU grants for construction.
Yesterday's detention is the 31st by the Naval Service this year. The last arrest was an Irish vessel in August, while the largest fines came to a total of £800,000 for two Japanese tuna vessels caught within the 200-mile limit.
