The master of a Samoa, Pago Pago based tuna longliner, which was caught fishing illegally in Cook Islands waters in 2004, has been fined nearly three hundred thousand US dollars by the Cook Islands.
Radio Cook Islands reports that the High Court fined Harry Burgess, whose boat “Adelita†was caught in November 2004.
It also confirmed the forfeiture of the boat’s catch.
Burgess pleaded guilty in exchange for a number of conditions, including that he would not be jailed.
Adelita was seized in the country’s Northern Group after a joint operation by a New Zealand air force patrol plane and a Cook Islands police patrol boat.
