Scottish trawler owner could lose state subsidies over Irish fishing incident

The owners of a Scottish trawler which carried out illegal fishing in Irish waters could be the first to lose state subsidies under tough marine conservation rules.

The Peterhead-based trawler Andromeda was caught dumping fish in the sea by Irish fisheries inspectors and police off the coast of County Cork in May.

The Andromeda was impounded and its master, Jonathan Bellany, was fined €17,000 (£14,287) and a further €26,888.56 paid in forfeiture.

The Scottish government has confirmed it is considering whether to follow up that conviction by clawing back up to £186,000 in grants given to the company that owns the Andromeda in the past two years to upgrade its nets and its onboard freezing facilities.

Scottish officials are now reviewing whether Andromeda Fishing Ltd is in breach of the agreement they signed when they received those grants. That includes deciding whether to seek reimbursement of some or all of that money.

The marine conservation charity Open Seas believes the case is a significant test of the Scottish government’s willingness to uphold its fishing conservation policies, which ministers claim are world-leading.

The UK and the EU have signed tough new World Trade Organization rules on subsidies for fishing fleets, which include a ban on any subsidy for vessels that commit illegal or unregulated fishing.

Phil Taylor, the director of Open Seas, said: “The Scottish government should seek to recover the funds paid to any company that goes on to use public money to subsidise illegal fishing activity and use this money instead to incentivise sustainability.

“To do otherwise risks harming Scotland’s economy since it conflicts with emerging rules for seafood sales around the world. The illegal discarding of fish is unfortunately not uncommon. Needless discarding is a systemic problem within the bottom-trawl industry, which leads to vast food waste, overfishing, and biodiversity loss.”

Open Seas, which campaigns against illegal and destructive fishing, believes this is the first time Scottish ministers are considering sanctions against a trawler for breaching its marine fund subsidy rules.

The Andromeda’s subsidies were paid before the incident. Scottish officials are likely to consider whether its owners are culpable for the crew’s conduct, and whether the offences are relevant to the grants it paid out.

The Andromeda’s owners, Mark and Karen Stephen of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, have not responded to requests for comment.

The Irish action was carried out on behalf of the EU’s European Fisheries Control Agency on 20 May. Officers onboard the agency’s patrol vessel watched the Andromeda’s crew discard between 30kg and 50kg of bycatch, including hake, megrim and haddock.

Bellany pleaded guilty to failing to keep fish that were subject to catch limits, failing to record legal discards and failing to have a completed stowage plan describing where fish were stored on the boat.

A spokesperson for the Irish Sea-fisheries Protection Authority said the illegal fishing “undermines the sustainability of sea-fisheries having regard to adverse impact on the survivability and sustainability of fish stocks, including by the discarding of dead juvenile catches back to the sea”.

An agency official added that he believed the crew “had a lack of training and knowledge of the legal requirements” of keeping and recording bycatch.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We are aware of the judgment passed by Cork circuit criminal court on 30 May 2024 and are currently considering the nature of the offence in relation to ‘serious infringements’ in context of the eligibility criteria for awards under the Marine Fund Scotland, and what further action may therefore be appropriate in this instance.”