Every CAUGHT case is assessed on three independent questions, and
the weakest of the three decides. A case reads CAUGHT only when all three are
established and a person has reviewed it.
Activitystrong
Was it fishing, here, and then?
Apparent fishing recorded at a position inside the closure, over an event lasting 49.2 h — the recorded extent of this fishing event is not contained by the closure, so the share of those hours spent inside it is not measured.
Vesselunknown
What gear does this boat actually use?
This vessel's gear cannot be established by any route available to us.
REAPER WK83 - BASIS B (`on_register_no_gear_source`). Researched 2026-09-06 (review cycle 63) at Angus's direction, as the single largest blocking subject in the project: 32 cases, all in one zone, Firth of Forth Banks Complex NCMPA Areas.
IDENTITY IS SETTLED AND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. REAPER, PLN WK83, MMSI 232022358, callsign MFIX5, port of registry WICK, admin port SCRABSTER, 16.75 m, 130 GT, 345 hp, built 1999. On the CURRENT MMO over-10m list (September 2026); scripts/mmo-history-index.js --name REAPER returns 43 rows over 4 distinct PLNs, of which WK83 is 16.75 m Scrabster and the other three (PO99 Plymouth 9.47 m, PW123 Newlyn 9.75 m, AH3 Pittenweem 7.88 m) are all under-10m boats on the opposite coasts - no same-name rival is close. PLN-ANCHORED PHOTOGRAPHICALLY TOO: a 2020 quayside photograph carries WK.83 on the bow and quarter and REAPER / WICK on the transom. Managed by Don Fishing Company Ltd, which names 'Reaper (WK83)' on its own vessel-management page with skippers Peter Sinclair / Donald Anderson. Licences on our MMO row: shellfish N, scallop N.
WHY THE GEAR STILL CANNOT BE ESTABLISHED, AND WHY THE BAR IS HIGHER HERE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE. The 32 cases are all in the Firth of Forth Banks Complex, and SSI 2025/240 article 9(1) prohibits fishing there 'with a demersal trawl or dredge' - while article 2 defines 'demersal mobile gear' to include the DEMERSAL SEINE NET, which article 9 pointedly omits. So establishing merely that REAPER TOWS would clear nothing. The question that has to be answered is the narrow one: TRAWL OR SEINE. No obtainable source draws that distinction for this hull.
THE THREE ROUTES TRIED, AND HOW EACH FAILED. (1) GFW VESSEL-IDENTITY REGISTRY - CLOSED. scripts/gfw-registry-identify.js returns 'no usable registry record' for this MMSI: GFW holds no filed length, so the sanctioned MMSI->dimension->PLN measurement route has nothing to join on. (2) TRADE PRESS, OWNER AND PORT SOURCES - EXHAUSTED WITHOUT AN ANSWER. Don Fishing's vessel-management page names the boat and its skippers but states no method; its Scrabster market page describes the port and no vessel's gear; targeted searches for REAPER WK83 with trawl/seine/nephrops return the 1902 Fifie herring drifter of the same name (a museum ship) and AIS aggregator pages that carry no gear field. fishandships.org, the one database a search summary indicates holds an FPO and licence record for this vessel, IS UNREADABLE - HTTP 503 maintenance mode behind an EXPIRED TLS CERTIFICATE (checked twice, 2026-09-06). That is the single most likely place an answer sits and it is the specific thing to retry. (3) PHOTOGRAPHIC GEAR IDENTIFICATION - ATTEMPTED, AND DELIBERATELY NOT RELIED ON; SEE THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.
THE PHOTOGRAPH, AND WHY IT CLOSES THE CASE RATHER THAN MAKING IT. Sydney Sinclair, 23 January 2020, Scalloway, via shipspotting (photo id 3109334). It is genuinely PLN-anchored - WK.83 is painted on the hull. Examined at full resolution, it shows two blue cambered slabs hung outboard on chains at BOTH quarters, in the position and attitude of stowed OTTER TRAWL DOORS, and a horizontal drum across the stern consistent with a net drum. NO ROPE COILERS, the equipment that distinguishes a Scottish seiner, are identifiable. On its face that reads TRAWL, which is the ACCUSING direction and would promote all 32 cases to CAUGHT. IT IS NOT ACCEPTED AS EVIDENCE, FOR A REASON THAT IS THE WHOLE PROJECT: it is one reviewer's visual reading of an upscaled crop of a six-year-old photograph, no source states what the objects are, and the standard the project holds itself to is that a gear record must be STATED BY A SOURCE, MMSI- or PLN-anchored. Promoting 32 public accusations against a named vessel and two named skippers on an inference from pixels is the COPIOUS error wearing better clothes. Recorded here in full so that the next reader knows exactly what was seen, and can weigh it if a documentary source ever arrives.
SO THIS ENTRY IS NOT A FINDING OF INNOCENCE, AND MUST NEVER BE READ AS ONE. It records that the evidence available to us cannot settle a question on which an accusation would turn, and that under precision-over-recall the case therefore closes. The photographic impression points the other way and is preserved above rather than buried.
WHAT WOULD REOPEN ALL 32: fishandships.org returning to service and stating a method against WK83; the Aberdeen FPO or Don Fishing stating REAPER's gear; a Marine Directorate or MMO record giving gear against MMSI 232022358 or PLN WK83; a photograph or video whose CAPTION (not our reading) identifies the gear; or any source distinguishing trawl from seine for this hull. Note the asymmetry: because the Firth of Forth carve-out exempts the demersal seine, a source establishing SEINE would move these cases further, to not_a_breach, which is a stronger and safer result than the closure recorded here.
What would reopen it: the vessel appearing on a future MMO list, an Isle of Man or Channel Islands register becoming available, or any source stating the gear against this MMSI.
Rulestrong
What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?
Carve-out recorded: demersal seine permitted here.
Demersal mobile gear is prohibited, with an explicit carve-out for demersal seines. The carve-out matters in practice rather than academically: pair-seiners and dual-purpose seiner/trawlers work this ground, and their activity here may be entirely lawful. It is also why this closure cannot be adjudicated from its gear class alone — the instrument has to be read.
Not established: vessel.
A case is only as strong as its weakest factor, so this one cannot read CAUGHT until that is settled.
Check it yourself
Nothing here asks to be taken on trust. The full report sets out every source,
every measurement and everything we could not establish.
What this is, and what it isn't. A CAUGHT case is a reason to look,
not a verdict, and this page is not a finding that an offence took place. Vessel names
and identifiers come from publicly broadcast AIS data, which can be wrong or
mis-attributed. Most fishing inside UK marine protected areas is currently
legal; CAUGHT only flags places where a rule already exists.
If you own or operate this vessel and believe it has been mischaracterised, write to
contact@caught.org.uk — corrections are
welcomed and we publish them. Your right of reply is set out in our
terms.