Shefa cable was damaged by mainland scallop dredger fishing “dark” this summer
Damage to the Shefa-2 subsea cable earlier this year was caused by a mainland-registered scallop dredger, according to official documents reviewed by The Shetland Times.
Emails in the hours after the break also suggest that the 24-metre Osprey, owned by West Coast Sea Products, was fishing “dark” without an AIS tracker transmitting at the time. Any vessel over 15-metres is required by law to sail with AIS on.
The resulting internet outages lasted almost two weeks across Shetland and Orkney. The incident marked the second time in two years when a fishing boat damaged the critical cable.
The months since have seen renewed calls from the fishing sector for cable operators to communicate with skippers, and a landmark Irish case award another communications company €400,000 damages after a scalloper snagged its cable.
West Coast Sea Products, a Kirkcudbright seafood company which owns Osprey and four other scallopers, did not respond to requests for comment by phone and email.
Emails between coastguard officials in the days after the snag suggest they were initially investigating whether workboats at the nearby Moray East windfarm were responsible, as well as another vessel “loitering around the cable” at the time of the accident.
The following morning, however, the Osprey’s owner called the coastguard and admitted the vessel had “made contact” with the cable between Orkney and mainland Scotland.
Officials struggled to find a track of the vessel from the time of the accident.
“We do not have any AIS information on the movements of the [vessel] having replayed the AIS recordings in the area,” reads one email from the coastguard to Shefa’s operators.
Those operators then asked for a recording of a call between Osprey’s skipper and owner after the accident. Shefa’s has been contacted to ask if they intend to pursue legal action.
Since the incident the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation launched a new platform for cable operators to share new plans with fishermen which it says are increasing squeezed between offshore developments.
While agreeing with the principles of “continued awareness”, Shefa’s managing director said at the time that the cable’s location was already common knowledge.
“The cable routes are already charted and marked on official navigation maps,” said Páll Højgaard Vesturbú. “We certainly support continued awareness among mariners and fishermen of cable routes to help prevent accidental damage.”
In September the Irish High Court also awarded €400,000 to Virgin Media after a scalloper damaged its cable in the Irish Sea in 2015. Industry newspaper Fishing News described the judgement as an “alarming precedent for the fishing industry”.
Environmental group Open Seas used the incident to call for better marine management.
“It's almost as if we could do with a spatial plan for fishing,” it said.
Osprey would not have been permitted to dredge in Shetland’s waters, where the size of boats and number of licences has been controlled under a unique regulating order since the turn of the century.
The Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation also does not allow dredging at night. Osprey snagged Shefa-2 just before 3am.