Assessed and closed: activity and vessel cannot be established on any evidence available to us, so no amount of work on the rule 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 (2.0 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?
The gear research on this vessel is closed: it was not established, and the case was resolved rather than left pending.
ATLAS WY170 — Closed on the SARAH LOUISE test (gear not researched), 2026-09-07 (cycle 67). CLOSED ON THE SARAH LOUISE TEST. The one live case (35572, Towed Gear Restriction for Bivalve Molluscs) grades the rule `moderate`, so gear cannot promote it. Worth knowing for whoever picks this up: a towed:true record for this MMSI was REVERTED on 2026-09-04 because its only citation named TrawlerPictures, a publication that no longer resolves and of which the Internet Archive holds no relevant capture - so the gear here is not merely unresearched, it is a known dead citation. CAPPED BY: rule: moderate on the one live case. WHAT WOULD REOPEN IT: Adjudicating the bivalve-mollusc towed-gear restriction, then a LIVE citable source for WY170's gear - not the dead TrawlerPictures reference.
This is not a finding that the vessel did nothing. It withdraws a pending accusation, which is the safe direction — and it reverses the moment a source states the gear, because every verdict is re-derived from the data files on each request.
Ruleunknown
What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?
Rule reviewed and NOT resolved: Eastern IFCA Marine Protected Areas Byelaw 2018 sets two different rules under this one closure. In Restricted Areas 14 to 35 bottom towed gear is banned outright (Schedule 1 paragraph 3). In Restricted Areas 1 to 13, inside the Wash, it is banned unless the fisher holds a licence under Article 8 of the Wash Fishery Order 1992 (paragraph 2), and whether a vessel held one is a documentary fact that its track cannot show. The engine cannot yet tell the two groups of areas apart, so the whole closure stays unresolved, although a case in Areas 14 to 35 would face a clean ban.
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.