Further shellfish offences cost Rowse Fishing £21k
11th March 2025
The owner and relief skipper of the 16.42m vivier potting vessel Emma Louise TO 60 have been convicted of offences relating to landing undersized crabs and berried lobsters, in the second prosecution involving the vessel in just over two years. On 5 March, at Truro Magistrates’ Court, Cornwall IFCA (CIFCA) successfully prosecuted Rowse Fishing Ltd and Ben Rowse, the owner and relief skipper of the Emma Louise. Regular skipper Raimonds Vimba did not attend court, but is expected to appear at a later date.
The defendants faced multiple charges related to their crab and lobster fishing, which had largely been conducted within the CIFCA district, including the removal of undersized brown crabs and spider crabs, fishing for berried and mutilated lobsters, and failure to accurately record details in the logbook.
The two defendants entered guilty pleas to all the charges relating to them. Rowse Fishing Ltd was fined £12,000 with £7,397 costs and a surcharge of £2,000. Ben Rowse was fined £1,053 with £1,000 costs and a £421 surcharge.
Undersized crabs and a mutilated lobster found onboard Emma Louise on 17 April, 2024.
The prosecution resulted from two separate investigations by CIFCA, where officers inspected Emma Louise in Newlyn harbour after the vessel had returned from fishing trips off the Cornish coast.
The first investigation involved Rowse Fishing Ltd and skipper Raimonds Vimba. Between 15 and 18 April, 2024, officers found evidence of the removal of 74 undersized male and six undersized female brown crabs, 14 undersized spider crabs and one lobster with a mutilated tail from the CIFCA district. They also discovered a failure to record in the logbook and in the landing declaration the quantities of each species kept onboard.
The second investigation involved Rowse Fishing Ltd and relief skipper Ben Rowse. Between 6 and 9 January, 2025, officers found evidence of fishing for berried lobsters and for a mutilated lobster within British fishery limits, and failure to record the name and address of the skipper in the logbook.
When officers inspected the catch in the vivier tank, they found six berried lobsters, as well as numerous other female lobsters showing signs of forcible egg removal. Tail parts from six of these lobsters were taken back to the CIFCA office, where testing showed that they had recently been berried, as well as revealing signs of physical damage, as would be expected from scrubbing.
CIFCA believes this points to a far greater number of berried lobsters retained onboard the Emma Louise than were actually found with berries.
In January 2023, Rowse Fishing Ltd and Ben Rowse were prosecuted by CIFCA following an inspection of the Emma Louise in May 2022, when six berried lobsters, two V-notched lobsters and a mutilated lobster were found, along with evidence of other female lobsters having been scrubbed. On that occasion the firm was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling over £26,000, while Ben Rowse had to pay over £2,500 (FN, 26 January, 2023, ‘Berried lobster landings cost Cornish firm £26k’).
Simon Cadman, CIFCA’s principal enforcement officer, said: “It is deeply concerning that a successful prosecution of Rowse Fishing Ltd and Ben Rowse in 2023, involving similar offending from the same vivier potting vessel in 2022, did not dissuade them from further illegal fishing for crabs and lobsters in 2024 and 2025. “Such short-sighted actions on this scale risks ruining crab and lobster fishing within the Cornwall IFCA district, putting the important livelihoods of scores of other fishermen and their fishing communities at risk. It is simply unacceptable to take and sell undersized and pregnant shellfish, which clearly need to survive in the fishery to ensure sustainable stocks long-term.
“I am pleased that the court has recognised the seriousness of the situation, and I hope the penalties it has imposed will improve the attitude of these offenders in terms of their future fishing practices in our precious Cornish waters.”
The consultation on a proposed new CIFCA byelaw that would exclude vessels over 12m, or those with vivier tanks over 2m3, from fishing within the IFCA district, closed on 13 February.
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.
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