ABSTRACT
In the Virginia District Court in the Irish border county of Cavan, on 20 October 2008, Alfonsas Zilius, a 38-year-old Lithuanian national was prosecuted for contravening the Conservation of Pike Bye-law No. 809, 2006. Officials of the Eastern Regional Fisheries Board (ERFB) had come across Mr Zilius fishing for pike, of which he’d caught two, using a live small fish as bait. He claimed, through his solicitor, he did not know at the time that he was breaking the law. Judge Sean MacBride rejected this. Far too many East Europeans were treating the locality’s resource of coarse fish as if it was free food, and this had to stop. He fined the Lithuanian fisherman €100 and ordered him to pay €864 costs.
