Arm7

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has sentenced skipper J.S. of the 'Jan Senior - ARM 7' of the Grietje BV from Arnemuiden to a six-month suspended prison sentence and an unconditional community service order of 240 hours. The fisherman was found guilty of cod fishing with forbidden gear and endangering inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) during an inspection at sea in 2017.

The skipper of the "Jan Senior - ARM 7" remained in custody, the seven crew members have been released. They were arrested on Aug 29 in Flushing on suspicion of attempted killing of fishery inspectors of the Dutch Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit (NVWA). In addition, they were still suspected of threatening three fishery inspectors and two employees of the Rijksreederij to be killed by overtaking their rubber boat. On Sep 1, the court ruled that the skipper had to remain in custody for fourteen days.

The eight crew members of the "Jan Senior - ARM-7" were arrested in the port of Flushing on Aug 29, 2017. This happened because of the risk of endangering fish inspectors from the Dutch Food and Welfare Authority (NVWA) and employees of the Rijksreederij. The vessel was taken to Flushing by the NVWA in cooperation with the Coast Guard, where the police held the eight crew members. They were transferred to a police station. The ship had been fishing with so-called inner pits, nets with a smaller mesh size than allowed, which are hung in legal nets, when three NVWA inspectors came aboard with a rubber boat at night. The "Jan Senior" did not respond to calls from the inspectors. When the inspectors came alongside, the skipper suddenly picked up his nets. The rubber boat with the inspectors and employees of the Rijksrederij was caught in the nets and was largely submerged. After two NVWA inspectors climbed aboard the trawler, they managed to stop the ship. The NVWA seized the nets and the fish caught, but the skipper dumped them into the sea. The NVWA filed a report of the various fisheries violations.