The Cornelis Gert Jan was detained after fishing for scallops in waters off the coast of Le Havre on Wednesday night.
Crew on the vessel, which is owned by the Peterhead-based MacDuff Shellfish, included fisherman David Devlin from Annan.
Yesterday, Downing Street said it was monitoring events closely. Environment secretary George Eustice said he was “urgently” investigating the matter.
Speaking in the House of Commons, he said: “What I’ve been able to establish so far in respect of that vessel is that they were on the list that was provided by the MMO (Marine Management Organisation) initially to the European Union.
“The European Union therefore did grant a licence. We are seeing some reports that, for some reason, they were subsequently withdrawn from the list; it’s unclear why that might have been at the moment.”
Andrew Brown from MacDuff Shellfish maintained the crew’s activity was “entirely legal”, adding that those on board were “in good spirits”.
Mr Brown called on the UK Government to “defend the rights of the UK fishing fleet”.
