The discovery is the latest in a series of reported abuses at the port of Rossaveal where gardai were called to back up sea-fisheries officers last month during an investigation into €500,000 worth of illegally landed mackerel.
The fisheries protection officers in yesterday’s operation detained the vessels at 7.30am after their suspicions were aroused by a last-minute declaration of a change in the size of the vessel’s catch.
Trawlers landing mackerel are obliged to give sea fisheries officers more than four hours’ notice by radio of the size of their catch and their intended point of landing.
The crews notified officers at 2am that they would be landing a certain quantity of fish within their limited remaining mackerel quota, in Rossaveal five hours later.
But minutes before they were due in the harbour, they made radio contact again to say they would be landing a larger quantity of the fish. Officers were at the quayside to meet the vessels, which were detained while their catches were assessed.
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The over-quota catch was estimated at 120 tons of mackerel, worth between €120,000 and €200,000, depending on prevailing market prices. The value of the over-quota catch will be recorded and the owners of the vessels obliged to lodge a bond to the same value with the Department of the Marine until the case has been concluded.
If the crews are successfully prosecuted fines will be deducted from the bond. If the prosecutions fail, the bond is refunded.
The detentions at the port of Rossaveal came just more than a week after two other vessels are believed to have landed more than €500,000 of illegally caught mackerel. A number of men attempted to disable quayside CCTV cameras used by sea-fisheries officers in order to thwart the investigation, and more than 15 trucks were used to offload the catch.
Gardai are still investigating the incident using tapes from CCTV cameras that were not disabled.
Noel Dempsey, the marine minister, told the Dail last week that a small group of fishermen were involved in “systematic criminal activity”. Dempsey said that France had been fined €20m for fisheries protection lapses by the EU, plus €57m for every six months that its regime remained deficient.
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“I will not expose the taxpayers of this country to that kind of criminality and to the potential of those kinds of fines,” he said, introducing an amended Sea Fisheries Bill.
“I need this legislation. When I meet the EU next Monday week, I need to be able to assure the commission that tough but fair legislation is in place and will be applied.”