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Italian Coast Guard fines Maltese trawler over illegal nets
The owners of a Maltese trawler have been fined €12,000 by the Italian Coast Guard who reported finding illegal nets on board the vessel.
3 January 2013, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
An Italian Coast Guard official inspecting the catch on board a fishing vessel inspected during 'Operation Mekong' off the Tuscan Coast last week
The Maltese fishing boat, of which details were not revealed was boarded by Coast Guard and fisheries department inspectors off the coast of Livorno, and found to have illegal nets.
The boarding of the Maltese vessel was conducted as part of a nationwide operation last week, in which a tonne of seafood was confiscated, 67 citations handed and €115,000 worth of fines issued in sweeping fishing trade inspections along the Tuscan coast.
Code-named 'Operation Mekong' Italian Coast Guard vessels were deployed to police Italy's fishing sector, during which, some 600 inspections were conducted in a crackdown on illegal fishing.
