The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority’s executive chair has said that the organisation is “committed” to detecting those who “choose not to comply” with the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The new chair Paschal Hayes was commenting after fines were imposed by Judge John Alymer on the master of the Maggie C fishing vessel at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal earlier this week.
The fines of 15,000 euro were imposed at a circuit court sitting in Letterkenny on February 8th.
At a previous sitting of the court, the master of the vessel had pleaded guilty to fishing offences including the failure to accurately record catches in the logbook while at sea.
The value of the catch and gear in the sum of €18,000 was also forfeited.
The vessel was detained following an inspection at sea by the Naval Service on October 13th, 2015, and was subsequently detained and brought to Killybegs Harbour, Co Donegal.
“The accurate recording of catches in logbooks is a critical element of effective quota management and is an important part of ensuring the sustainability of our marine resources,” Mr Hayes said in a statement issued after the judgment.
“ Most operators adhere to the requirements of the EU CFP; however, there are some who choose not to,” he said.
“ We are committed to detecting those who choose not to comply,” he said.
“ With the support of our control partners, our risk-based approach to regulation allows us to identify activity and vessels that pose a higher risk, and where non-compliance is found, the appropriate action will be taken, “ he said.
Ruling by the European Court of Justice
In a separate development, the SFPA has also welcomed the ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that Ireland’s sea-fisheries regulator can submit data other than fishermen’s declarations of their catches to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the European Commission.
It said the ECJ ruling “endorses a decision by the High Court that the SFPA can use reasonable, scientifically valid methods and data to certify data logged by fishermen so as to achieve more accurate catch figures, when they consider fishermen’s declarations unreliable”.
“Fishermen should accurately declare their catches, and the SFPA should not have to consider second-guessing legal declarations,” Mr Hayes commented.
“ Protection of Ireland’s marine resources is critical to sustaining their future and we will continue to use all tools available to deter and detect over-fishing, ensuring fishers comply and Ireland’s data are as accurate as possible,” he said
The case arose following an assessment by SFPA of a mismatch between time spent in different areas and the proportion of catches logged.
Consequently, the SFPA data that was provided was based on the total catches declared on fishermen’s log sheets as assessed against the actual fishing operations logged by the fishermen (including time spent) for their fishing activity in FU16 (the Porcupine area)¹ in 2017, and not according to the catch area declared.
