Plymouth fisherman prosecuted for failure to meet conditions of permit.
Mr Kurtis Martin (26) the master and owner of the commercial fishing vessel Maggie PH492 pleaded guilty at Bodmin Magistrate Court on the 20th July 2021 to charges of failing to meet the conditions of a live wrasse fishing permit by not providing Cornwall IFCA with the required monthly statements of the number of each species of wrasse taken, and type and quantity of fishing gear used within the Cornwall IFCA district. Cornwall IFCA offered Mr Martin a £750 financial administrative penalty for three of the later offences which he chose to refuse and as such charges were brought against him.
Mr Kurtis Martin (26) of Coxside, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to the charges that between September and November 2020 he failed to meet his permit conditions as one of the five boats permitted to catch live wrasse from within the Cornwall IFCA district. Magistrates fined Mr Martin £900 with costs of £1743.12 awarded and a victim surcharge of £90, ordering it to be pay at £400 per month. Mr Martin will also not be able to reapply for a permit to fish for live wrasse for the following year.
There are several species of the wrasse family which are caught in traps and exported live to be used as cleaner fish in aquaculture usually for the control of sea lice in salmon farms. Recent years have seen an expansion of the use of live cleaner fish and in response to this novel, and potentially lucrative, market for a species which has faced little commercial pressure, Cornwall IFCA created the Live Wrasse Fishing (Limited Permit) Byelaw 2018. This created five permits for vessels to exploit live wrasse from within the Cornwall IFCA district. As part of this permit, and in order to monitor this new fishery, permit holders were required to supply Cornwall IFCA with a monthly breakdown of the fish caught as well as the areas fished, and number and type of gear used. Despite numerous warnings and reminders Mr martin failed to supply the required information.
Cornwall IFCA’s Principal Enforcement Officer, Simon Cadman, said “Permit holders must supply us with the information we need to monitor the health of this fish stock, where a permit holder repeatedly fails to provide us with this information and refuses to accept a Finical Administrative Penalty we will prosecute.”