Two commercial fishermen from Ulladulla on the New South Wales South Coast have been charged with the alleged deliberate scuttling of the fishing vessel Maria Louise K (MLK).<\/p>\n
Mark McDermott, 55, and his son, Marcus Clem McDermott, 28, were charged with one count each of dumping a vessel into Australian waters.<\/p>\n
The offence falls under the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981, under which it is prohibited to dump a vessel into Australian waters without a permit.<\/p>\n
The matter was mentioned briefly in Nowra Local Court on Monday.<\/p>\n
Neither man was required to appear.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maria Louise K at Ulladulla Harbour before it sank. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n
Authorities respond to information<\/p>\n
The Department of Climate Change, Energy and the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) said the 16 metre vessel, built in 1970 and previously operated as a commercial trawler in Western and South Australia, was purchased by the father and son in 2020.<\/p>\n
DCCEEW said a prior NSW Maritime inspection of the MLK while berthed at Ulladulla Harbour found the vessel unseaworthy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Maria Louise K prior to its alleged sinking. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n
DCCEEW began investigating a referral from the Australian Maritime Authority after information from a member of the public.<\/p>\n
With support from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, investigators found the MLK 5.8\u202fnautical miles north-east of Ulladulla Port, resting on the ocean floor at a depth of 80\u201390\u202fmetres.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The MLK was located 5.8 nautical miles north-east of Ulladulla Port. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n
The department alleges it discovered circulated video footage of the vessel being scuttled.<\/p>\n
Court documents suggest the boat was sunk on or about January 24, 2023.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two men have been charged with allegedly dumping the vessel. (Supplied: DCCEEW)<\/p>\n
The matter will return to court in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two commercial fishermen from Ulladulla on the New South Wales South Coast have been charged with the alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,181132,1108,146800,46062,181133,51110,181135,181134,181131,85,181130],"class_list":["post-321683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-maritime-authority","tag-court","tag-dcceew","tag-department-of-climate-change","tag-energy-and-the-environment-and-water","tag-illegal-dumping","tag-marcus-clem-mcdermott","tag-mark-mcdermott","tag-nowra","tag-sports","tag-trawling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}