(ZAGREB) - Three Italian fishermen were fined and expulsed from Croatia for one year after their boat was caught in illegal fishing in the country's Adriatic Sea waters, a judge said on Friday.

The captain of the trawler, intercepted on Thursday by Croatia's coast guard in the waters of the southern island of Vis, was fined 57,000 kunas (7,700 euros, 11,400 dollars), judge Senka Acalinovic of a Vis court told AFP.

The two crew members were fined 400 euros (600 dollars) each, she said.

All three men were expelled from Croatia for one year, the judge added.

Meanwhile, the boat, which had been escorted to the port of Vis, has returned to Italy, the Italian consul in the southern town of Split Augusto Baccaro told the state-run HINA news agency.

The boat was intercepted only two days after Croatia activated an ecological and fishing protection zone in the Adriatic. The European Union, which Zagreb would like to join, is strongly opposing the zone.

The Italian boat was not intercepted in the zone but in Croatia's territorial waters.

The 23,800 square kilometer (9,520 square mile) zone was proclaimed by the Croatian parliament back in 2003. It was aimed at protecting Adriatic Sea fishing stocks which Zagreb says are being depleted by Italy's larger fishing fleet.

However, in 2004 Croatia agreed exemptions for EU countries -- notably its neighbors Italy and Slovenia -- until a fishing accord is finalized with the EU.

Italy and Slovenia have now proclaimed their own ecological zones.

Brussels has repeatedly warned that the zone's activation would have negative consequences on Croatia's adhesion talks with the bloc, which Zagreb hopes to join by 2010.

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