A KINSALE fisherman has been convicted and fined in court for not returning both undersized and mutilated lobsters to the water after a court heard that tourists onboard his vessel were sorting the lobsters.

Eamonn O’Neill of The High Ground, Cappagh, Kinsale pleaded guilty at Bandon District Court to two fishing offences on July 16th last, namely not returning undersized lobsters and also not returning mutilated lobsters.

Sea Fisheries Protection Officer Virginia Valls-Senties told Judge Joanne Carroll that she and her colleague were carrying out a routine patrol near Kinsale on July 16th last to check inshore fishing vessels in the harbour.

She said they came upon a lobster keep, which is a container used to store lobsters and crabs under water in order to keep them alive until they are collected later.

They inspected it onboard their RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) and found 64 lobsters inside with 10 of them undersized while 14 of them were mutilated which means the tails were marked with a V notch which meant that animals were reproductive females and shouldn’t be caught.

She said those particular lobsters should be released before they get into the keep and it is done to help maintain and protect the stocks.

She said that fishermen cut one of the flaps of the tail to help identify the female lobster.

‘My colleague spoke to Mr O’Neill and he said he had a couple of tourists on board who had wanted to go on a fishing trip. They had been handling the lobsters and a few of them may have gone into the keep by mistake,’ said Ms Valls-Senties.

Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said his client, who has been fishing for a long time in Kinsale and is a former harbourmaster in the town, was fully co-operative with the officers.

He said a French couple who were visiting Kinsale went out on his boat and he allowed them to help with the lobsters.

‘He apologises for what happened. It wasn’t for commercial gain and it was entirely inadvertent that those lobsters ended up in the keep,’ said Mr Taaffe.

The court heard that he has no previous convictions but had undertaken community service for a fishing offence in 2015.

Judge Carroll convicted him on both offences and fined him a total of €725 giving him four months to pay the fines.