{"id":517546,"date":"2026-06-25T10:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517546\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:26:09","slug":"cork-fisherman-fined-for-allowing-tourists-to-sort-lobsters-on-his-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517546\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork fisherman fined for allowing tourists to sort lobsters on his boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kinsale-based inshore fisherman has been convicted in the district court of two counts of not immediately releasing lobster back into the sea.<\/p>\n

Eamonn O\u2019Neill, with an address at the High Ground, Cappagh, Kinsale, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to one count of not returning under-sized lobster (with a carapace length of less than 87mm) and one count of not returning mutilated lobster, contrary to EU fishery conservation laws.<\/p>\n

The case was taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions, following investigations by the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA).<\/p>\n

Giving evidence, SFPA officer Virginia Valls-Senties told the court she was on a routine patrol with a colleague near Kinsale on a rigid inflatable (RIB) patrol vessel on July 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

They came upon a lobster keep, a seabed container used to hold live lobsters temporarily after they are caught and until they are collected later.<\/p>\n

They lifted the keep aboard the RIB and found 64 lobsters inside.<\/p>\n

Ms Valls-Senties said 10 of them were under-sized and should not have been caught.<\/p>\n

A further four were \u201cmutilated\u201d, meaning their tails had been marked with a \u201cV notch\u201d, or marked in another way, usually indicating that the animals were reproductive females and also should not be caught.<\/p>\n

Ms Valls-Senties said the 14 lobsters should all have been released immediately by the fisherman when they were found in hauled pots and not placed in the keep for later collection.<\/p>\n

Ms Valls-Senties said it was important that the rules were observed by lobster fishermen to maintain stocks.<\/p>\n

She added that the notching or mutilating of tails to help identify females was a voluntary practice that fishermen followed to try to help support the local industry.<\/p>\n

Former harbourmaster\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plunkett Taaffe, defending, said his client was a well-known and well-respected member of the fishing community in Kinsale and a former harbourmaster in the town.<\/p>\n

He said O\u2019Neill had brought a French couple, who where visiting the area, out on the boat with him, and he had allowed them to grade some of the lobster from the catch.<\/p>\n

Mr Taaffe said that some lobsters were placed into the keep mistakenly and O\u2019Neill accepted it was his responsibility.<\/p>\n

The court was told it was \u201centirely inadvertent\u201d that the lobsters had gone into the keep, was not for commercial gain, and O\u2019Neill was fully co-operative with the SFPA and apologised for what had happened.<\/p>\n

State solicitor Jerry Healy said the State accepted there was a French couple, but said it was \u201ca concern\u201d, because the notching of lobster was a voluntary practice and taking such animals from the water was \u201cvery unfair on others\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said O\u2019Neill was \u201ca long time fishing\u201d and knew specific legislation was put in place to protect lobster stocks.<\/p>\n

The court was told that O\u2019Neill had no previous convictions, but had undertaken voluntary service relating to a similar charge in 2015.<\/p>\n

Mr Taaffe said his client was regularly inspected and remained vigilant about obeying the rules.<\/p>\n

Judge Joanne Carroll said \u201cwe all need to remain vigilant\u201d at work and noted that O\u2019Neill had previously undertaken voluntary service in relation to a similar charge. O\u2019Neill was convicted on both counts and fined a total of \u20ac725 and given four months to pay.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kinsale-based inshore fisherman has been convicted in the district court of two counts of not immediately releasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34756,79,54,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-517546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-courts","tag-cork-news","tag-courts","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}