Twin-Rig Demersal Trawl (Prawn/Whitefish) — high confidence
Length
20.4 m
Home port
FRASERBURGH
How this case was judged
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.
Activitymoderate
Was it fishing, here, and then?
Apparent fishing recorded at a position inside the closure, over an event lasting 27.9 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.
Activity contested on location. The single representative position for this 28-hour event lies about 65 m inside the closure's boundary. Global Fishing Watch's own effort data, clipped to the closure's boundary, places none of this vessel's roughly 15 hours of apparent fishing on 8 and 9 July inside it: the tow ran north-east along the outside of the western edge, 1.3 to 25 km off the line. On this record the vessel cannot be placed fishing inside the closure.
We hold no AIS track for this vessel over this event (0 fixes), so the only measures available are GFW's own dwell and bout counts, which are fixed and do not improve on re-examination.
What would settle it: AIS coverage of this vessel during the event, or independent corroboration. Neither is obtainable by research — both need a data source we do not yet have.
Article 4(1) of the Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 (SSI 2025/240) prohibits fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear in the Central Fladen First and Second Protected Areas. Article 2 defines that gear as a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (beam or bottom) or a dredge, so seine netting is prohibited here as well as trawling and dredging. There is no exception, season, permit or tonnage limit. The boundary is the Order's own (schedule 2, Part 1), which extends 1.3 km² beyond the designated MPA outline.
Not established: activity.
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.