Case 3518 — NIFCA District

The case in brief

This vessel is licensed for static pots/creel and not for scallops, so an apparent-fishing score here cannot be shown to be the banned seabed gear. The gear actually worked on this date is not established.

Case

#3518

Observation

Apparent fishing (satellite vessel tracking)

Closed area

NIFCA District (Dredges Byelaw)

What is prohibited there

dredging prohibited

When

2026-06-17 01:55 UTC → 2026-06-17 02:50 UTC

Position

55.0334°, -1.4000°

Vessel

STACEY_E

MMSI

235109591

Flag

GBR

Gear (satellite-inferred)

Dredge Fishing

Length

9.83 m

Home port

NORTH SHIELDS

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 weak

  Was it fishing, here, and then?

  • No movement analysis on this case — it predates the transit check, so fishing and transiting cannot be separated.

• Vessel strong

  What gear does this boat actually use?

  • This vessel holds a shellfish (pot/creel) entitlement on the MMO licence list, and holds no scallop entitlement.
  • This closure protects the seabed and does not prohibit static pots, so a vessel entitled to work them — and not entitled to tow a scallop dredge — cannot be shown by an apparent-fishing score to have used the banned gear.
  • The entitlement is read from the list for 2026-06, the monthly list in force when this event occurred, not from today's snapshot — unchanged on every list since 2025-01. The flags move — 42 of 4,933 hulls changed this entitlement at least once over the archive window — so the date matters.
  • This is an ENTITLEMENT, not an identification of the gear worked on this date. It establishes that the accusation cannot be made out, not what the vessel was doing.

• Rule strong

  What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?

  • Rule reviewed: Paragraph 3: 'A person must not use a dredge for the exploitation of sea fisheries resources.' Paragraph 4: a relevant fishing vessel transiting through the District must have all dredges onboard, lashed and stowed..

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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