Two fined £400 each for having undersized ormers

Oliver Handley, 25, of 6, Rue Jamouneau, Grand Bouet, St Peter Port, and Richard Le Ray, 40, of 18, Close de Bordage, Le Bordage Road, St Sampson’s, admitted the offence when they appeared in the Magistrate’s Court.

Crown Advocate Fiona Russell told the court how the Sea Fisheries officer had spoken to the men as they walked up the road that leads from the causeway to Lihou Island. The minimum size for harvesting ormers is 80mm. Of the 68 ormers which Mr Le Ray had in his possession, 16 were undersized, while of the 36 that Mr Handley had, 16 were below 80mm.

The men accepted that the ormers were undersized and said they had checked them with a tape measure before taking them. Neither man had previous convictions for anything similar and the ormers were returned to the sea.

Advocate Samuel Steel said his clients both understood how ormers were special to the island and needed to be protected. All of the undersized ormers exceeded 70mm and a lot exceeded 75mm.

They had seen the Sea Fisheries inspector ahead of them but had not been concerned because they thought that what they had exceeded the 80mm threshold.

They had co-operated fully with the inspector and it was not until he measured the ormers with digital callipers that they realised that their measurements were wrong. They had been out since and bought digital callipers of their own.

Advocate Russell confirmed that the undersized ormers which the men had taken were all between 71mm and 78mm.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said he did not need to remind people of the special importance and significance of ormers to the island.

Taking ormers undersized affected their ability to reproduce and could affect stocks across the island.

He accepted that the men had not offended deliberately and the offence was more down to primitive measuring. Had they offended deliberately the penalty he would have imposed would have been much higher. The men were fined £400 each.