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.
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.
Activityweak
Was it fishing, here, and then?
No movement analysis on this case — it predates the transit check, so fishing and transiting cannot be separated.
Vesselstrong
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 2025-08. 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.
Rulestrong
What was prohibited there, then, for that gear?
Rule reviewed against the instrument: SSI 2004/276 article 3(1) prohibits fishing for sea fish with a trawl, Danish seine or similar net, purse seine, ring net or dredge (including a suction dredge) here, and Schedule 1 item 30 sets the period at '1st January to 31st December in each year'. The row carries no excepted method, so the article 4 exception does not reach this closure.
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.