A FISHERMAN has been ordered to pay £1,750 after being found guilty of fishing with an overpowered boat.

Brightlingsea skipper Terry Stimpson appeared before Basildon Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of breaching a Kent and Essex IFCA bylaw on engine power.

The bylaw was introduced to protect sensitive inshore marine habitats and fish stocks from the impact of heavy fishing gear used by more powerful boats.

The court heard that on August 19, 2013, fisheries officers boarded the fishing vessel Seaglory II while it was towing a trawl net inside the district.

On September 1 last year, the same vessel was again observed towing something inside the district.

Stimpson, of Clacton, accepted in court that his vessel engine power of 245kW was in excess of that permitted in the bylaw of 221kW, but claimed that on the first occasion the trawl was not fishing, and on the second occasion he was towing a chain in order to encourage fish to swim in to his drift nets.

The magistrates found that he was fishing on the first occasion, and on the second occasion that a chain could still be classed as a towed fishing instrument, and therefore in breach of the bylaw.

Stimpson was fined £500 per offence and ordered to pay £750 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, Stimpson said: “I am the last commercial fisherman in Brightlingsea and they are trying to put me out of business.

“I was building the boat in the yard right next to a fishing officer and they never told me then I was putting the wrong engines in. Because I have got two engines, I have fallen foul of the bylaw.

“I am the last commercial boat left in Brightlingsea. It used to be a fishing port and in the 19th century there were about 350 fishing boats – I am now the last one.”

Stimpson said he hoped to challenge the outcome of the case. “I am still fighting – I haven’t given up yet,” he added.