A north-east skipper landed an illegal catch at Scrabster but by the time fishery officers discovered it, the fish had been transported south to Peterhead and sold, Wick sheriff Court heard yesterday.
The skipper, Scott Shepherd was charged and fined £2,162 despite this.
Shepherd, 46, admitted having failed to comply with a regulation by catching and landing a quantity of haddock from a closed West Coast fishery.
Skippers are regularly advised of changes in fishing areas by e-mail and on a Marine Scotland web site. Fiscal David Barclay said that Shepherd had simply failed to keep up with the updates.
The offence was discovered when fishery officers were checking the electronic log on board the accused’s trawler, Aquarius, after its catch was landed at Scrabster on December 10, last year.
Sheriff Andrew Berry heard that when seen by the authorities, Shepherd of 8 Kirkwood Crescent, Portsoy, said that it was “just a genuine mistake”.
Scrabster fisherman sold illegal catch before officers found it
