Shrimps and cod worth less than €700 cost two Sicilian fishermen dearly: they were each fined €20,000 after pleading guilty before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli to fishing in Maltese territorial waters on Thursday at about 8.25am.

They were escorted to Haywharf by the Armed Forces at about 5pm.

Salvatore Penna, 52, admitted that as master of La Madonnina he had fished illegally in Maltese waters, had failed to inform the fisheries protection official of the amount of fish he carried, as well as failing to maintain a monitoring system in violation of the fisheries convention.

Penna, from Ragusa, was found to be carrying €362 worth of shrimps and cod (merluzz).

Salvatore Saporito, 29 of Licata, also pleaded guilty to the same charges and was fined €20,000.

Fisheries representative Francis Caruana testified that Saporito had €318 worth of shrimps and merluzz, the shrimps being of two species, white and red, fetching different prices.

All the fish the Sicilians had caught were sold at the fish market.

Inspector Godwin Scerri prosecuted; Dr Charmaine Cherrett was defence counsel.

Once they have paid the fines, the two would be allowed to return home.

According to news website hercole.it, administrators from Vittoria and Licata had hurriedly come to Malta aboard a private yacht to ascertain the conditions of the two masters and their crews. The administrators have also returned home.

According to si24.it, another news website, the news of the arrest had caused consternation among the people of the southern Sicilian shore. The accused maintained they had been in international waters when they were apprehended.

Assessor Pierro Gurrieri from the Vittoria local government appealed to the Italian foreign office to help in the matter. He urged the Italian and Maltese governments to come to an agreement on fishing issues, “just as they have done in the past on behalf of Maltese fishermen”.

Federcoopesca Sicilia, on its part commented that this was the fourth arrest of a Ragusa boat in just a few days. The arrested men are workers and fathers of families, it commented, not al-Qaeda terrorists or Somali pirates.

“We are against those who infringe the laws of the sea,” it commented, “and are all for the rule of law. But we cannot tolerate the methods used in the recent past by the Maltese military any more, as they are boarding vessels with weapons in hand. We do not even want to think that an accident, costing lives, may happen, given the nervousness and tension of those moments.”