Case 43932 — NIFCA District

The case in brief

Assessed and closed: rule cannot be established on any evidence available to us.

Case

#43932

Observation

Apparent fishing (satellite vessel tracking)

Closed area

NIFCA District (Trawling Byelaw)

What is prohibited there

trawling prohibited

When

2026-08-08 12:21 UTC → 2026-08-08 23:03 UTC

Position

55.1581°, -1.3460°

Vessel

ELLEN MAC LH272

MMSI

235075108

Flag

GBR

Gear (satellite-inferred)

Trawlers

Gear (verified by hand)

Twin-Rig Demersal Trawl (Built For Beam Trawling) — high confidence

Length

11.8 m

Home port

EYEMOUTH

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 strong

  Was it fishing, here, and then?

  • 2 separate fishing bouts inside the closure — a vessel on passage makes one.
  • Apparent fishing recorded at a position inside the closure, over an event lasting 10.5 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.

• Vessel strong

  What gear does this boat actually use?

  • Bottom-towed gear established: twin-rig demersal trawl (built for beam trawling).

• Rule unknown

  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: 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.

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