The capture of the Santa Mafalda took place on 29 May 2005, when Canadian fisheries officers boarded the Portuguese trawler Santa Mafalda about off Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland. The vessel was escorted to St. John's, and its master was charged under the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act with unauthorized entry and unauthorized fishing in Canadian waters. The charges related to an incident in May 2003. The Globe and Mail described the arrest as the first of an overseas vessel by Canada since the Turbot War of the early 1990s.
Background The Santa Mafalda was a Portuguese trawler that had fished off Newfoundland since at least 1997, when Canadian surveillance photographed her. In the ten years before 2005, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) recorded 14 citations against the vessel in nine separate incidents.
In an earlier boarding, Canadian officers found the trawler fishing just outside the 200-nautical-mile limit on the nose of the Grand Banks and suspected that she had taken a large quantity of cod. Two of her holds were sealed, and the fisheries patrol vessel Leonard J. Cowley escorted her back toward Portugal for inspection. Under the rules of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), vessels suspected of violations may return to their home country to face charges.
May 2003 incident In May 2003 the trawler left the Canadian zone after being spotted from the air. She was cited and ordered back to Portugal, and Canadian officials said at the time that no charges would be laid as long as she stayed out of Canadian waters. Her master was charged in November 2003 with unauthorized entry and unauthorized fishing, but the vessel was no longer in Canadian jurisdiction, so no further action could be taken.
Canada can arrest a foreign vessel for overfishing only if it is caught inside its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
Seizure A Canadian surveillance flight saw the Santa Mafalda enter Saint-Pierre and Miquelon early in the week of 22 May 2005. She had gone there for repairs with a crew of about 30. On Sunday afternoon, 29 May, she left port, and two Canadian Coast Guard ships took positions along the route officials expected her to take out of Canadian waters.
The fisheries patrol vessel Leonard J. Cowley stopped and boarded the trawler late that night. The master was arrested on two counts under the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act: unauthorized entry and unauthorized fishing within Canada's 200-mile zone. The Cowley escorted the vessel to St. John's.
DFO said the seizure was not based on new fishing violations. The vessel was taken because she was inside the 200-mile limit, and the department noted that she had returned to Canadian waters only a few days earlier.
Reaction On 31 May 2005 the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador issued a statement welcoming the seizure. Fisheries minister Trevor Taylor said it showed that Canada intended to enforce conservation measures. The province called the case the first test of the international overfishing declaration reached earlier that month at a conference in St. John's, and it urged that the European Union and Canada ensure the vessel was punished fully. The statement also argued that the 14 earlier citations had produced little action until Canada acted inside its own zone, and it cited the case as evidence that NAFO could not deal with overfishing outside 200 miles.
Legal proceedings The master, identified in later court reporting as José Ramalheira, faced charges of illegal entry and illegal fishing in Canadian waters dating from 2003. The case went to the provincial court in Newfoundland and Labrador. Beginning in 2006, his lawyer obtained three postponements on the grounds that he was ill and could not travel to Canada, and a fourth request was refused. The defence then applied to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, arguing that the provincial court had overstepped its authority. Justice Lois Hoegg found no jurisdictional error and ruled that the trial could proceed in his absence.
Later events A later CBC report on NAFO citations named the Santa Mafalda among the Portuguese vessels cited for illegally caught fish, alongside the Joana Princesa, Pascoal Atlantico, Calvao and Santa Isabel. It noted the 2005 seizure and the vessel's earlier citations.
See also Turbot War Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
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