The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency has fined a fishing boat skipper about $13,000 for putting an anchored boat off the coast of Sussex. The skipper fell asleep on watch, in response to the MCA. 

On January 15, 2022, fishing captain Maurice Reid was on the helm aboard the fishing vessel Margaret Anne, a UK-registered scallop dredger. The vessel was transiting previous Shoreham, off the southern coast of Sussex, when it approached the anchored fishing vessel Blackbird.

The crew of the Blackbird detected the Margaret Anne’s strategy and understood the danger of a possible casualty. They tried to get the eye of the skipper, however obtained no response. In order to reduce the affect, they pulled on the anchor cable to “maneuver” as finest they might as Margaret Anne closed in. 

The pressure of the affect precipitated minor accidents to 2 crewmembers aboard Blackbird. Margaret Anne continued on her voyage; the captain had been asleep, and the crew solely realized that one thing was amiss once they regarded out to see what was happening. 

Reid, 44, pleaded responsible to failing to do what was required of a grasp to stop critical harm to a different ship or particular person (beneath UK transport regulation). He additionally pleaded responsible to failing to take care of a correct lookout. 

Reid was sentenced to 100 hours of neighborhood service, a nice of $13,000, and eight months imprisonment (suspended for 12 months). 

“The UK fishing industry has the highest proportion of deaths and serious injury per capita of any industry within the UK. Many events involving casualties on fishing vessels are a result of complacency, neglect and flagrant disregard for the law. This is unacceptable and those fishers and owners who put lives at risk will be prosecuted,” stated MCA investigator Martin Hayward in a press release. “[This incident] could have had disastrous consequences were it not for the quick thinking of those on the vessel in danger.”

Margaret Anne (ex title Georg Lou N) has had a number of earlier casualties and encounters with the authorities. As Georg Lou N, she reportedly spilled diesel throughout a gas switch in Scarborough Harbor in 2018; was fined for unlawful fishing earlier the identical yr; and went aground in Stranraer Harbor in 2014. She has been offered twice since these earlier incidents occurred; the newest proprietor just isn’t registered in her Equasis document.