Body that polices fish catches using 'illegal' equipment

The inspections of weighing equipment used by the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority were carried out in preparation for new legislation.

Weighing equipment used by the body charged with policing fish catches in Irish waters does not meet required standards and is operating illegally, according to inspections carried out by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). 

The results of the inspections on the equipment follow a decision by the EU to cancel the Irish control plan for policing the industry on the basis that it was completely ineffective in detecting the breaking of fishing quotas in Irish waters. 

The new regime is expected to result in a cut to Irish fishing quotas and the loss of up to €40m in EU aid for the industry.

The inspections of weighing equipment used by the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) were carried out in May and June by the NSAI in preparation for new legislation that is to come in as a result of the ruling from Brussels.

'Non-compliant'

The Irish Examiner has seen correspondence sent from the NSAI to senior personnel in the SFPA pointing out that “below you will find a list of instruments that our inspections recently inspected at the SFPA port locations. We did not include pier side weighbridges in this exercise. All weighing instruments were found to be non-compliant. The feedback from all of our inspectors was that the ski scales that you have at the various sites are not suitable or fit for purpose as they cannot be levelled accurately.” 

The communication goes on to point out that the weighing instruments were never compliant and are in fact illegal.

“During our inspections we determined that all of these instruments were non-compliant when they were supplied to you, ie they have never completed their initial verifications and this is required by law before a trading instrument can be placed onto the market and put into use.” 

The minister for agriculture, food and the marine, who is currently in negotiations with the EU about the new regime, has not been told about the illegal equipment.

A spokesperson for the NSAI confirmed that the inspections were carried out. 

The NSAI has in the past been involved in prosecuting fish processors for fraudulently underreporting catches but its spokesperson said that it had never relied on the SFPA equipment for prosecutions. 

'Not in current use'

In a statement, the SFPA confirmed that the equipment was found to be non-compliant but said that the instruments were “not in current use but previously were generally used to give information that helped assess accuracy of operator weighing”. It did not state when it ceased to be used or whether the cessation was as a result of the inspection.

The statement also noted that SFPA chair Susan Steele had, at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Marine, described the equipment as being NSAI compliant.

“The equipment was found to be non compliant and as it is not used or required for weighing purposes it has been withdrawn," said the statement. "The SFPA has notified the committee and apologised for the unintended misinformation.”