STAR OF ANNAN OB50

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Skipper found guilty of illegal fishing

The skipper of the 'Star of Annan' has been found guilty of illegal fishing in a marine protected zone on Scotland’s north west coast. Alex Murray was convicted on April 14, 2022, following a three-day trial at the Stornoway Sheriff Court. The 56-year-old man from Lewis, was in charge of the vessel while it was operating within the Wester Ross Marine Protection Area. Murray had denied a charge of dredging for scallops in the banned area on July 18, 2019. During the trial he maintained the fishing equipment was stuck underneath the vessel and could not be properly hauled back in due to engine and hydraulic machinery problems. The 'Star of Annan' only entered the protection zone to seek shelter for the safety of the crew and vessel due to the engine and machinery troubles, he said. Repairs were being attempted and fuel filters changed in efforts to get the winches back in action. Fishing dredges were partly below the sea surface because they could only get the gear up so far. The hydraulic problems meant “you can’t fish” as the winches are connected to the dredging gear, he told the court. The ship was required to navigate at slow speed to stop the vessel rolling in the sea swell and weather conditions, he told the court. They faced a “dangerous situation” if the wires behind the boat got tangled together in the prevailing sea state the trial heard. Signs of damage to seabed. Later that day, the vessel was “marking wires” and not fishing when spotted by two crew onboard an Ullapool-based prawn creel boat said Murray. Diver Alexander Mackenzie told the court he investigated underwater six days later and recorded signs of dredge fishing on the sea bottom.

Owner and master fined for breaches of local scallop dredging regulations

The owner and master of the 'Star of Annan' will have to pay over £200,000 after pleading guilty to multiple breaches of local scallop dredging regulations and national fisheries legislation. The John MacAlister (Oban) Ltd. of South Pier, Oban and the master of the vessel, Alec Murray, of Upper Bayble, Isle of Lewis, both appeared at the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on April 6, 2021, for sentencing, having admitted the offences at a previous hearing. The company’s owner was fined £180,000, and has to pay £7,000 costs and £170 victim surcharge while Murray was fined £2,908, has to pay costs of £555 and a victim surcharge of £170. MacAlister also appeared as a director to represent the Q Varl Fishing Co Ltd. The Terrace, Torquay, which was fined £15,000 and has to pay costs of £2,140 and a £170 victim surcharge relating to two similar offences which were committed by the fishing vessel 'Q Varl-BM 29' between May 27 May and June 4, 2019. The prosecution was brought by the North East Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NEIFCA) following significant patrols and enforcement efforts. The court heard how the 10 offences, which had between March 4, 2019, and May 28, 2019, off the coast of Robin Hood’s Bay, included operating in a closed season, using scallop dredges, failing to operate a fully functioning vessel identification system as well as landing undersized scallops. The magistrates found that there had been a deliberate failure to put in place and to enforce such systems as could reasonably be expected to avoid commission of the offences.

Phosphor bomb exploded - crew sent to hospital

For fishermen of the "Star of Annan" to be quarantined after a World War Two shell containing chemicals exploded on their ship. They had hauled up the bomb in their nets when it detonated. All were taken to hospital after the phosphorous inside the shell burst into flames. The heat from the blaze on the vessel was so intense it turned steel white and even cooked some crab claws next to it on the deck. It was only hours after the potentially lethal explosion when all four of the crew started to feel unwell with chest pains, stomach pains and streaming eyes that the alarm was raised. The fishermen were dredging for scallops in an area near the Beaufort's Dyke trench between Scotland and Northern Ireland on Nov 14, 2016, when they picked up the shell in their nets. On Nov 15 as the boat made it's way to a separate fishing ground near Islay the shell suddenly exploded after being dislodged. . The ship took a roll and the bomb went off. Within seconds the smoke was so thick the crew members in their bunks down below could not see each other. They couldn't even see the ladder to get out. In the space of a couple of minutes the fire had turned the steel white hot. The skipper managed to get the fire out by hosing it down and we carried on towards Islay. They continued fishing on the Tuesday morning but the whole crew felt unwell so the Coastguard told they would either send out a helicopter or they should get in to Oban and go to hospital. When the boat docked in Oban the crew were driven to the Lorn and Islands Hospital by the wife of one crew member where they were treated in quarantine before being transferred to the hospital's high dependency unit. The four crew men were kept in the hospital overnight with two transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley as a precaution for eye injuries. The men were all later released.