Displaying items by tag: control

The digitalisation of the fishing industry is moving ahead

This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 6 2021

Despite many improvements, regional overfishing, bycatches and discards remain unsolved problems for the global fishing industry. Catch quotas, controls at sea and in ports, area closures and fishing bans do help, but are not satisfactory solutions. It would be preferable if unwanted fish did not get caught in fishing gear in the first place. Innovative technologies are giving hope for new solutions.

Updating electronic systems to combat IUU

This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 5 2021.

Legislation related to fisheries and aquaculture in Romania is going through a significant change with the existing fisheries law being split into separate laws for fisheries and aquaculture. Farming of fish and seafood in the Black Sea is now receiving official attention and new regulations governing fishing are leading to initiatives that aim to better monitor fisheries. Steering all this and more is Gheorghe Stefan, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, whose years of experience in the fisheries administration as well as the private sector should stand him in good stead in his current role.

A Sisyphean task for fisheries management

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 6 / 2020.

Compliance with fishing quotas and implementation of fisheries regulations requires constant monitoring and control and it was to this end that the Community Fisheries Control Agency was set up as the supreme authority in the EU. Although it is relatively small the agency has to carry out a wide range of tasks. Despite its numerous achievements there seems to be no end to the criticism raining down on the group with regard to the effectiveness of the controls. Why do a lot of things work better in Norway or Iceland?

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing for short) is one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of fishing, marine ecosystems, marine biodiversity, and human food security. Although international bodies and the UN regard illegal fishing as an environmental crime and the European Union has adopted a regulation to combat IUU fishing the problem has not been fully resolved because there are still gaps and loopholes.

Illegal, undocumented and unregulated fishing, also known as pirate fishing, has many facets. In deep-sea fishing, it is understood to mean all types of commercial fishing carried out without the necessary licence, in which the fishing quota authorised under the fishing licence is exceeded, or in which the quantities caught are not, not completely or incorrectly documented. However, it is also considered to be IUU fishing if a fishing vessel fishes in territorial waters of other nations without permission, or if it violates the fishing laws of that country, for example by ignoring fishing times and protected areas. The territorial waters of some West African countries, for example, are among the preferred fishing areas for pirate fishing. In none of these countries is there a strong fisheries control authority, so that the pirate vessels are not in much danger of being caught.

Esben Lunde Larsen, Danish Minister for the Environment and Food, will investigate whether companies are breeding fish for which they do not have permission. In autumn at Hjarnø in Horsens Fjord, Denmark about 200 coho salmon escaped from a farm. Following a request from the Danish Sports Fishing Association, it emerged that the company did not have all the necessary permits to breed the non-indigenous species. While a farming company is responsible for having the permits in place, the authorities need to do more to ensure knowledge of the rules and to make sure that they are being respected, said Mr Lunde Larsen. The farm in question was authorised by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration to import coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) eggs but did not have a valid permit to breed an alien species. The minister has now asked the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to check for and address any similar cases.