$52m of forfeited fishing boats quickly returned to service

Throwing them back – a forfeited fishing boat is not forever. (Image: Getty)

Wed, 08 Sep 2021

In the past five years, commercial fishers have forfeited 30 ships collectively worth $52 million to the Crown for fishing offences.In the same period fishers, have paid $524,595 in redemption fees to recover their vessels — or about 1% of the estimated value of all ships forfeited, with only a small number of the 30 cases yet to be resolved. Since at least 2016, the Crown hasn’t kept a single boat.Environmental groups have slammed the ‘paper forfeiture’ regime, saying it isn’t consistent with what the public...

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