A Maltese fishing boat was caught illegally fishing for lampuki in Italian seas on Friday morning, Italy’s coast guard has said. 

The boat’s captain was fined €4,000 and had more than 600kg of fish confiscated by Italian authorities as a result before being allowed to return to Malta. 

In a statement, the coast guard said that satellite monitoring had flagged suspicions that the Maltese boat was illegally fishing off Pantelleria on Friday morning. 

A coast guard vessel dispatched to intercept the boat spotted it as it was laying a fishing aggregating device (FAD) in the sea, around 10 nautical miles off the Italian island. 

An FAD is a device used to lure fish to a location. 

Video: Guardia Costiera

The boat’s captain was fined €4,000 for illegal fishing, having an incomplete logbook and for failing to identify and mark the FAD.  

Authorities also confiscated more than 600kg of fish, a 250m-long net and three FADs. 

Italy’s coast guard said that it has confiscated 53 illegal FADs around the Aeolian Islands over the past days. The FADs did not have tracking devices attached to them. 

Malta's armed forces have in the past weeks started patrols in Maltese and international waters to keep an eye on illegal fishing, following complaints by local fishermen that Tunisian pirates were stealing catches from Maltese-planted FADs. 

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