Fishing skippers, owners and an auctioneer in the port of Newlyn, England, have been convicted of deliberately overfishing protected fish stocks for financial gain and ordered by a judge to pay £190,000 in fines with more to come.

Six skippers, an owner and an auctioneer were convicted of a total of 114 specimen charges of fraudulently selling illegally-caught protected stocks such as cod and disguising them as non-quota species which could be landed legally.

The number of charges brought, and the decision by inspectors to investigate the activities of a whole port are thought to make this the biggest case ever brought by the British government involving “black” fish. Continue reading ‘Cornwall rocked by massive fraud over selling ‘black’ fish’