LAST UPDATE | 17 Feb

EUROPEAN FISHERY PROTECTION officers have escorted a German factory fishing ship into Cork Harbour this morning after it was detained off the Cork coast yesterday. 

The Helen Mary was boarded by the crew of the European Fisheries Control Agency Ocean Protector some 100 nautical miles out to sea on Sunday afternoon.

Sources have said that one of the offences it was detained for was a damaged or faulty boarding ladder. 

This morning the Ocean Protector was at anchor in Cork Harbour having arrived earlier – the factory ship came into the harbour shortly after 10am and made its way to Tivoli docks up river in Cork city. 

A spokeswoman for the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority confirmed that the European Fisheries Control Agency’s (EFCA) Offshore Patrol Vessel was involved.

While it is normally the Irish navy that is most often associated with sea fisheries work the use of the EFCA is part of a “Joint Deployment Plan”.  

The spokeswoman said that the vessel was detained as the European agency had “detected suspected infringements of European fisheries legislation involving a sea-fishing vessel in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)”.

“The Joint Deployment Plans (JDP) framework provides the legal basis where the relationships of joint deployment of inspections assets/inspectors are set and are applicable to all assets of the concerned Member States and EFCA.

“When operating in EU waters, the EFCA inspectors always have Union Inspectors from Members States onboard and they are the leading inspectors. The vessel has been directed to Cork port,” she said. 

A garda spokeswoman confirmed this afternoon that a man has been arrested on board the ship and is being questioned at a Cork garda station.

“Gardaí received a report of an incident of alleged fishery breaches in the Port of Cork, County Cork.

“A man in his 40s has been arrested and conveyed to a Garda Station in County Cork and is being detained under the provisions of the Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006. The investigation is ongoing,” she said.