reporting suspected illegal sea fishing in northern ireland

[Al and Jordan]

it was recently brought to my attention about a stretch of the county down coast that had been hammered by an illegal longlining operation. the relevant authorities have been informed and the incident is under investigation so we'll say no more about it for legal reasons. but it did have me ask the question "how do you go about reporting suspected illegal fishing on the northern ireland coastline?"
a friend of mine did a bit of research on my behalf and it turns out that there are structures in place to deal with such incidents. sadly with all the different departments and divisions of government in the north you could end up going around in circles for days on different switchboards before you get put through to the right department/agency
so the outcome of the research thankfully ended up with some solid advice and a direct line of communication with the relevant person and division responsible for such matters.
i'll boil it down into 4 simple steps to keep things as simple as possible.

1. if you see or suspect any illegal fishing, the man to contact is Damien Skillen, DARD fishery division, suspected illegal fishing at sea. the contact number is 02890 524232.
2. if possible get the boat's name as this will speed up the whole process.
3. get the boat's PLN number
4. give an accurate as possible location to where you saw the act take place
5 and most importantly, ask for a report and leave your contact details with him so he can let you know the outcome of his investigation.

sometimes the matter can be cleared up with a simple computer check against the boats operating licence or checking if a net has been set in an area where there are not ment to be any nets. but either way damien's number is always handy to have stored into your mobile. even if you never have to use it, it's still handy to have.