RADIANCE INS240 — fishing inside Loch Sunart to Sound of Jura Protected Area

The closed area is outlined; the marker is where the activity was recorded. Basemap © Esri, HERE, Garmin, OpenStreetMap contributors.

The case in brief

Fishing established, gear established, and the prohibition established as in force.

Case: #48
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: 2026-06-08 17:00 UTC → 2026-06-08 19:35 UTC
Position: 56.3564°, -5.5835°
Vessel: RADIANCE INS240
MMSI: 232006740
Flag: GBR
Gear (satellite-inferred): Trawlers
Gear (verified by hand): Demersal (Nephrops) Trawl — medium-high confidence
Length: 19.68 m

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.
Vessel strong

What gear does this boat actually use?
- Bottom-towed gear established: demersal (nephrops) trawl.
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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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.

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