Assessed and closed: activity and rule cannot be established on any evidence available to us, so no amount of work on the vessel could settle this case.
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, but below the bar for a strong call (5.1 h, 1 bout(s), 0 AIS fix(es)).
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.
Vesselunknown
What gear does this boat actually use?
No hand-verified gear record for this vessel. GFW's inferred label is a behavioural guess and is documented to mislabel inshore creel boats as trawlers, so it cannot carry a case.
Ruleunknown
What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?
Rule reviewed and NOT resolved: A breach cannot be established for cases OUTSIDE the specified area, which is where all but three of ours sit. Paragraph 4(c) permits Scottish or Danish seine netting there with no length limit and no permit, so establishing that a vessel towed gear is not enough — it has to be shown NOT to have been seine netting, which no obtainable source records. INSIDE the specified area the position is different and the case may be decidable on gear alone (see `specified_area`), but our zones are not keyed to that boundary, so the engine cannot yet tell the two apart. Kept unresolved deliberately: the distinction would make this closure STRICTER for some cases, which is a promotion path and Angus's gate.
Not established: vessel; rule.
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.