Company fined, vessel seized for illegal fishing

A deep sea fishing company has been fined $59,000 and its vessel has been seized after illegal bottom trawling by a skipper on his first high sea job.

The Amaltal Fishing Company, a subsidiary of Talley’s Group, and skipper Charles Shuttleworth were convicted and sentenced in Nelson District Court yesterday on 14 charges of bottom trawling in a protected area. The charges relate to a 10-day period in 2018, when the Amaltal Apollo made 14 trawls in Lord Howe Rise, a protected area of the Tasman Sea, harvesting 22 tonnes of fish valued at $127,000.

In March, Amaltal and Shuttleworth were found guilty of the charges, which were brought by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Reading from court documents, Judge David Ruth described how Shuttleworth, despite his 40-year experience, had never worked on the high seas. On the voyage, the captain relied on a sea plotting device with out-of-date information instead of a high seas permit, which would have given him the latest information, Ruth said.

A briefing before the voyage concentrated on ‘‘where to find fish’’ and did not mention the permit, Ruth said. ‘‘The up-to-date information was available but that did not come to Mr Shuttleworth’s attention.’’

Shuttleworth, 58, had since been demoted from his captain position, resulting in a significant loss of income, Ruth said.

Since the offending, Amaltal had made efforts to improve procedures, Ruth said. It employed geofencing (GPS technology that creates a virtual boundary), and went on board with skippers to go over the technology and the permit ahead of a voyage, Ruth said.

While the first option was not available at the time of the offending, the second should have been procedure anyway, Ruth said.

‘‘This was not only obvious but very much a low-tech solution that was available at the time of offending and should have been employed by a diligent employer.’’

The trawls netted Amaltal a ‘‘significant amount of fish’’ and took place over a ‘‘substantial time period, Ruth said.

Amaltal and Shuttleworth were convicted of the charges. As well as the $59,000 fine, Ruth ordered the forfeiture of the vessel, equipment and the fish. The skipper was fined $12,000.

Outside court, MPI director of compliance services Gary Orr said the convictions sent an ‘‘important message’’.

‘‘The company has tried to say it was a mistake but mistakes of this magnitude have consequences.’’