Detention order secured for former Atlantic Dawn

One of the world's largest fishing vessels is still under detention today in south Co Donegal as part of a Naval Service and Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) surveillance operation.

Inspections were being carried out by the Naval Service and SFPA yesterday on the 144m Dutch fish factory vessel Annelies Ilena, formerly the Atlantic Dawn.

The vessel has been tied up in Killybegs over the weekend.

The ship was apprehended off the northwest coast on Friday by the LE Róisín under the command of Lieut Cdr Terry Ward.

It was directed to port on suspicion of “high grading”, whereby smaller fish are discarded in breach of European Union regulations, with larger fish retained to increase the value of the catch.

The ship had been fishing for horse mackerel and blue whiting in British and Irish waters for the past 20 days under EU quota allocations.

Diek Parlevliet, director of Parlevliet and Van der Plas, which owns the Dutch supertrawler, said in a statement: “We comply with the European rules and capture only within the allowable catch quotas.”

He added: “If it is a violation, it must be very small.”