Case 66002 — Central Fladen NCMPA 1st Area

The case in brief

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

Case

#66002

Observation

Apparent fishing (satellite vessel tracking)

Closed area

Central Fladen NCMPA 1st Area (Offshore Fishing Order 2025)

What is prohibited there

bottom-towed gear prohibited

When

2026-08-28 23:51 UTC → 2026-08-30 08:46 UTC

Position

59.1387°, -0.3160°

Vessel

OUR LASS 3

MMSI

235100414

Flag

GBR

Gear (satellite-inferred)

Trawlers

Gear (verified by hand)

Demersal Trawl (Twin Rig, Pair Trawl, Single-Boat Trawl); The Same Hull Also Works A Demersal Seine Net (Pair Seine) — high confidence

Length

6.2 m

Home port

REDCAR

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?

  • Apparent fishing recorded at a position inside the closure, over an event lasting 32.9 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.
  • Activity contested on location. The single representative position for this 33-hour event lies inside the closure, but it summarises a track that ranged over most of a degree of longitude. Global Fishing Watch's own effort data, clipped to the closure's boundary, places none of this vessel's roughly 51 hours of apparent fishing on 28 to 30 August inside it: every hour lies outside, the nearest about 1.3 km off the western edge. On this record the vessel cannot be placed fishing inside the closure.
  • 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?

  • Bottom-towed gear established: demersal_trawl (twin rig, pair trawl, single-boat trawl); the same hull also works a demersal seine net (pair seine).
  • Holds a creel/pot licence (MMO) and no scallop licence.

• Rule strong

  What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?

  • Article 4(1) of the Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 (SSI 2025/240) prohibits fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear in the Central Fladen First and Second Protected Areas. Article 2 defines that gear as a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (beam or bottom) or a dredge, so seine netting is prohibited here as well as trawling and dredging. There is no exception, season, permit or tonnage limit. The boundary is the Order's own (schedule 2, Part 1), which extends 1.3 km² beyond the designated MPA outline.

Not established: activity. 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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