Case 15439 — Loch Sunart to Sound of Jura Protected Area

The case in brief

This is not a fishing vessel, so no fishing offence arises — the apparent-fishing score is a behavioural false positive.

Case

#15439

Observation

Apparent fishing (satellite vessel tracking)

Closed area

Loch Sunart to Sound of Jura Protected Area (SSI 2016 No. 90)

What is prohibited there

bottom-towed gear prohibited

When

2026-07-13 11:08 UTC → 2026-07-13 11:32 UTC

Position

56.4967°, -5.7220°

Vessel

KATRINA

MMSI

235055401

Flag

GBR

Gear (satellite-inferred)

Trawlers

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.

• Activity moderate

  Was it fishing, here, and then?

  • Movement check could not separate fishing from transiting on this track.
  • 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.

• Vessel strong

  What gear does this boat actually use?

  • This is not a fishing vessel. It is on the hand-verified non-fishing list, established by identification of the hull rather than inferred from behaviour.
  • See data/known-non-fishing.json for the identification and its citation.
  • GFW's behavioural model reads a slow, tortuous, long-dwell track as trawling, which is what a yacht, a tug on station or a swim-escort boat produces.

• Rule strong

  What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?

  • Carve-out recorded: creel, parlour creel permitted here.
  • Article 4(2) of the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Conservation Order 2016 (SSI 2016/90) prohibits deploying or using any fishing gear in the protected area. Article 4(6) limits “fishing gear” to beam trawls, demersal seine nets, demersal trawls, dredges and passive nets and lines, and excludes creels and parlour creels. Article 4(4) allows any gear to save life or secure a vessel's safety, and a mechanical dredge or a demersal trawl (not a beam trawl, no tickler chains) in the Schedule 2 areas — year-round in Parts 1, 2 and 7–9, and in Parts 3–6 only from October to March. Article 5 provides for scientific-research permits.

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.

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