Galway Bay fm newsroom - A man has been convicted at Galway District Court for being in possession of over 1,400 undersized native oysters.
Patrick Cormican, with an address at Newline, Maree, County Galway, pleaded guilty to a single charge of being in possession of the undersize native oysters when apprehended by Fisheries Officers on 7th December 2017.
The incident happened at Blackweir near Clarinbridge.
Solicitor Dioraí Ford, representing Inland Fisheries, outlined to the court that Fisheries Officers observed Mr. Cormican loading bags of oysters into a tractor trailer at Blackweir on December 7th.
Mr. Cormican is a licenced oyster fisherman, and on the day in question, had around 5,000 oysters, of which 1,425 were undersized.
Officers spent over an hour and a half measuring and counting the oysters.
The court heard that Mr. Cormican was co-operative on the day in question and had a previous conviction in relation to oysters dating from 1991.
Judge Mary Fahy commented on how serious a matter this was, particularly with the local connection with the world-famous Clarinbridge Oyster.
Mr Ford outlined that the Fisheries Officers involved in the case had never seen such an amount of undersized oysters before while carrying out an inspection of this type.
Judge Fahy convicted Patrick Cormican and imposed a fine of €750 and must also pay costs of €800.
