Like the Flying Dutchman of maritime mythology, the arrival of the fishing vessel Margiris in home waters has become a portent of doom. Except this is no imaginary ghost ship, the monster called Margiris is all too real. If you were a local fisherman, or anyone concerned with the marine environment, and certainly if you were a horse mackerel minding your own business in the English Channel, you would not have wanted to see Margiris looming over the horizon.

Lithuanian-flagged, Dutch-owned, the ship is thought to be the second-largest fishing vessel in the world. At 142m long, it is 14 times the length of a normal inshore trawler. Its vast net can catch up to 250 tonnes of fish a day and its capacious holds