The European Commission has withdrawn Ireland’s control plan for weighing seafood catches as a result of lack of confidence in the Irish monitoring system.
As The Times Ireland edition reports today, all fish landed by both small Irish inshore vessels and larger supertrawlers with substantial mackerel catches must now be weighed at point of landing – as in on or close to piers.
The European Commission’s decision is to be implemented with “immediate effect,” the State’s Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) has confirmed.
Brussels has revoked a derogation granted to the Irish industry to weigh catches away from the place of landing, such as in fish factories.
It will not affect other EU vessels landing into Irish ports – such as Belgian and French vessels which then weigh their catch in Europe.
The decision follows an EU audit in 2018 of controls for Ireland’s pelagic fisheries – as in mackerel, herring and blue whiting – in Killybegs, Co Donegal.
The 2018 audit had identified irregularities, including the manipulation of weighing systems in some instances.
The SFPA said that these irregularities were “subsequently confirmed in an administrative inquiry” which it conducted.
The EU move is the latest in a series of setback for the Irish fishing industry, already facing a 15 per cent overall reduction in quotas due to Brexit.
Minister for Marine Charlie McConalogue has also been engaging with the European Commission over a “payback” from pelagic quotas as a result of under-reporting catches.
Whereas the “payback” issue affects one sector of the industry, the entire Irish fleet is affected by the new weighing rules.
National Inshore Fishermen’s Association (NIFA) secretary Alex Crowley said it had not yet heard directly from the SFPA on the issue.
“We had expected that any sanctions would only apply to the pelagic sector, as this is where the irregularities were found,” Mr Crowley said.
“A lot of smaller boats landing fish would transport their catch to first point of sale themselves, so we are waiting to see what the implications of the EU decision will be,” he said.
SFPA chair Dr Susan Steele said it would be “contacting producer organisations and industry representatives as well as holding local meetings to ensure that the industry is familiar with the changes that are required”,
“The accurate weighing of catches remains the responsibility of industry,” Dr Steele said.
“ The EU’s decision, however, will involve changes to weighing practices. We will be working to ensure that industry can introduce these efficiently and in a way that assures compliance with EU regulations,” she said.
“This decision is a clear marker of tougher fisheries controls across the EU,” she added, stating that the SFPA “takes its commitments under the CFP very seriously”.
Read The Times Ireland here
