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The Marine Management Organisation has secured its second successful prosecution for breaches of Marine Protected Area byelaws, following a guilty plea at North Tyneside Magistrates Court relating to illegal fishing activity inside the Canyons Marine Conservation Zone.
On 29 January 2026, Marcos Gonzales-Rivera, a Spanish national and master of the British-registered fishing vessel Brisan FD9, pleaded guilty to using anchored nets in a prohibited area of the Canyons MCZ, with offences occurring during January 2024.
Evidence-led enforcement
The prosecution marks the MMO’s second enforcement success under its MPA byelaw regime, reinforcing its approach to evidence-led regulation in protected waters. According to the MMO, Brisan entered the Canyons MCZ on three separate occasions during January 2024 whilst deploying set gill nets.
The use of such gear is prohibited under The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone (Specified Area) Prohibited Fishing Gears Byelaw 2022, introduced to prevent damage to sensitive seabed habitats and associated species within the MCZ. The MMO said the VMS data provided clear and reliable evidence of the activity, allowing enforcement action to proceed despite the absence of direct observation at sea.
The 53-year-old vessel master was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay legal costs and a victim surcharge, bringing the total financial penalty to £1,688. The court took into account several mitigating factors including an early guilty plea, the defendant’s previous good character, immediate remedial action once informed that the area was an MCZ, and the fact that no further offences had been committed in the two years since the breaches.
Protecting vulnerable deep-sea habitats
The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone protects a range of vulnerable marine features, including deep-sea bed habitats, cold-water corals, and sea-pen and burrowing megafauna communities. These habitats are considered particularly sensitive to physical disturbance from certain fishing gears.
Sean Douglas, Head of Regulatory Assurance at the Marine Management Organisation, said the case underlined the organisation’s enforcement approach: “This successful prosecution demonstrates MMO’s continued commitment to evidence-led enforcement of MPA byelaws. We are pleased the court reached a proportionate outcome. Our MPA byelaws exist to protect and support the recovery of vulnerable habitats and species. We will continue to hold those who breach them to account.”
Building enforcement precedent
The case follows the MMO’s first successful MPA byelaw prosecution in May 2025, which resulted in fines, victim surcharge and costs totalling more than £40,000 after illegal bottom towed fishing activity was detected within the Offshore Brighton Marine Conservation Zone.
That landmark case involved Christoph Gouy, master of the French-registered fishing vessel Pierre D’Ambre, who pleaded guilty at Newcastle Magistrates Court on 2 May 2025 to using bottom towed fishing gear in a prohibited area of the Offshore Brighton MCZ in April 2024.
Taken together, the two cases indicate that MPA byelaw enforcement is moving from policy into practical application, with further prosecutions likely where evidence supports action.
High compliance rates
The MMO has reported that compliance with MPA byelaws is consistently high. Since analysing fishing vessels’ VMS positions from March 2024, the MMO observed 524 vessels actively fishing with bottom-towed gear in English waters, of which 66 were detected breaching the byelaws, with several cases under investigation for potential prosecution.
The Marine Protected Areas Bottom Towed Fishing Gear Byelaw 2023 came into force on 22 March 2024, prohibiting the use of bottom towed fishing gear in almost 4,000 square kilometres across 13 English offshore MPAs. A 50-day notification period preceded the byelaw’s implementation and was widely communicated to the fishing industry.