The Royal Navy’s new fishery protection vessel HMS Severn has already made her mark – just five days into her front-line career.

Fishing vessel Lilly L fell foul of the River-class patrol ship in the English Channel as Severn began her first tour of duty out of her home port of Portsmouth.

Severn’s boarding party found the Lilly L dredging for scallops – but when crew checked the fishing boat’s hold, they discovered it had picked up illegal quantities of angler, cuttle and other fish.

The trawler’s captain was fined £2,300 by magistrates in Plymouth and ordered to pay £200 costs.

Severn’s sister Tyne netted her first catches in August, ushering three trawlers into Portsmouth and Plymouth in the space of a week over suspected breaches of fishing laws.

The last ship of the class, HMS Mersey, is due to be handed over to the RN by builders VT Group next month.

Meanwhile, Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel HMS Quorn has picked up the Soberton Cup for her efforts in the past 12 months in the Fishery Protection Squadron.

Working on behalf of DEFRA, Quorn carried out 104 boardings, among which were 11 boats which had broken international fishery laws.

The Portsmouth-based ship still found time for some of her more traditional duties, fitting some training into her busy schedule and continuing to strengthen her affiliations with her namesake town in Leicestershire and the Sea Cadet Unit TS Venomous.

Cdre Barry Leighton presented the cup to Quorn’s Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr Stephen Allen, on behalf of the Royal Naval Association, which founded the trophy 14 years ago.

Cdre Leighton said the minor war vessel and her crew had shone in the past 12 months.

“Under the command of Lt Cdr Allen and his predecessor, Lt Cdr Mark Lister, the ship’s company have served with professionalism, self-belief and dedication,” said the Commodore, who is General Secretary of the RNA.

“They have been truly magnificent over the past year and the award is richly deserved.”