A third member of the Scallop Management Board has resigned.

Billy Caley voluntarily stepped down after his company, Heather Maid Limited, owner of the "Heather Maid", was fined £5,000 for illegal fishing,

He has been replaced on the board - which advises the government on measures to protect the fishery - by his son William, who is manager of Isle of Man Seafoods in Peel.

Two other members of DEFA’s Scallop Management Board - Melvyn Reid and John King - have resigned this year after being fined for illegal fishing.

Heather Maid’s skipper and owner appeared in court in June when they admitted fishing king scallops in closed waters.

Heather Maid had spent two and a quarter hours in the closed area catching 4.5 bags of king scallops with a value of £496.35.

Skipper Adrian Derek Rowlands told DEFA officials it was a ’genuine mistake’. The company was represented in court by director Mrs Caley.

Earlier this year Melvyn Reid was fined £5,000 by magistrates for breaching the king scallop curfew.

He was caught fishing for king scallops south west of Douglas on his vessel Our Sarah Jane at just before 5.40am on November 8 last year

Mr Reid was a member of the Scallop Management Board at the time of the offence but resigned before he appeared in court.

In March Scottish trawler owner John King and skipper Anthony True pleaded guilty in court of fishing for king scallops in Manx waters without a permit.

They were fined £5,000 and £12,000 respectively and the vessel’s sea fishing licence suspended for a period of three months of the king scallop fishing season.

Mr King of West Coast Sea Products Ltd, which owned the vessel involved, subsequently resigned as a member of the Scallop Management Board.

The prosecution was hailed by DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot as sending a strong signal about the government’s ’zero tolerance’ approach to violations of the island’s fishing regulations.

A DEFA spokesman said: ’I can confirm that three people, each of whom has recently been convicted of a fisheries offence in relation to measures introduced for the purpose of conservation of scallop stocks, have resigned from the Scallop Management Board.’

Earlier this year, the Manx government caved into Scottish demands over protection measures for the scallop fishery.

Daily reporting of catches by visiting scallop trawlers was introduced in the new year but then lifted following the intervention of the Scottish government, amid concerns it could put jobs and livelihoods at risk.