More fishermen fined for undeclared tuna catches

The French captain of a fishing boat which failed to inform the Maltese authorities that it was carrying a catch of two large tuna fish, has been fined, together with the director of the company he caught them for.

Captain Anthony Joseph Caci, who is in charge of the Libya-flagged fishing trawler Al Safa IV, appeared before magistrate Doreen Clarke this morning, charged with failing to notify the authorities of his catch as well as making a false declaration to the Maltese port authorities.

During the same sitting, Davide Cappitta, director of Ocean Bound Trading, was charged with passing on false information to the authorities.

It was explained that the trawler uses purse seine nets to place the fish it had caught into a cage which it then towed to fish farms. During the transfer into the cage some fish die and must be accounted for.

The Al Safa IV had not informed the authorities that they were entering territorial waters with fish aboard.

It is understood that Captain Caci had logged the 120kg of blue fin tuna on his logbook but had failed to declare them to the authorities as he had not yet applied for the electronic blue fin catch document from the vessel’s flag state.

Lawyers Abigail Galea and Carina Testa, appearing for the defendants, entered a guilty plea and reminded the court that the men had a clean police conduct and that the amount of fish on board was small - only two fish. Prosecuting inspector Daryl Borg did not request the seizure of the vessel.

In view of their admissions, the court found the men guilty, handing a €6,000 fine to Captain Caci and a €1,000 fine to Cappitta.

The decision comes less than 24 hours after a Sicilian captain and Maltese company director received the same fines for failing to declare a 400kg catch of tuna.