A fisherman has been successfully prosecuted by Cumbria Sea Fisheries Committee   for landing fish smaller that regulations allow.

John Teggarty, 48, of Strand Hill, Clogherhead, County Louth, Southern Ireland, pleaded guilty at Whitehaven Magistrates Court on Wednesday, August 2nd, to landing undersized plaice. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £584 costs.

Mr Teggarty, skipper of the Irish Enterprise, landed his catch on the quayside at Whitehaven Harbour on May 18, 2006.

A senior fishery officer working for Cumbria Sea Fisheries Committee noticed some of the plaice being unloaded were too small. 

Officers investigated and found that 295 of 686 plaice checked were under the legal minimum length of 27cm and decided to prosecute. 

Mr Teggarty, a fisherman for 25 years, pleaded guilty. He was was excused from attending Whitehaven Magistrates Court in person on the grounds that he was fishing in the North Sea.

In his absence, Alan Horn of Hadaway and Hadaway solicitors told the court in mitigation that the skipper was without two crew members and that a realtively new Lithuanian crew member had sorted the plaice that day.

Mr Teggarty, who had no previous convictions and cooperated with fisheries officers, accepted that the crew member had not been suffiently supervised. 

Magistrates agreed that there had been no criminal intent, but said that Mr Teggarty was was responsible for the offence. They fined him £1,000 and ordered him to pay £583.84 prosecution costs.

Chief Fisheries Officer David Dobson said: “These are conservation measures we are enforcing – they are designed to protect the marine environment and safeguard fish stocks for the future so it is in every fisherman’s interest to abide by them. Most fisherman stick to the rules but we will prosecute those that don’t whenever we can.”