Overfishing blamed on failure to enforce or heed rules

ALMOST 90% of stocks in European waters are overfished because neither fishermen nor the authorities are observing EU rules.

The European Commission has also claimed that up to 70% of fishermen’s logbooks are wrong when catches are cross checked against sales.

A report from the commission has also found that only one in every 600 vessels are monitored at sea and those caught breaking the law are fined tiny sums in comparison to the fish stock being illegally caught.

The commission is, as a result of their findings, proposing tough rules including a points system that could see vessels lose their fishing licence and member states losing money from the EU fisheries fund.

Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg has suggested that control and enforcement should be the cornerstone of fish policy.

“Instead it is the Achilles heel, undermining the credibility of all our other management measures,” he said.

Mr Borg went on to reveal that he had heard of cases where courts had fined vessel owners a mere €500 when they were caught taking fish from an area that was out of bounds and for not having a fishing licence, which costs €6,000.

The average EU fine, he pointed out, was just €2,000, despite the fact that illegally landed fish was worth millions.

Mr Borg also pointed out that the variation in penalties being imposed from one country to another and suggested a minimum penalty of €5,000 for serious infringements and a register of those found guilty under a penalty points system.

He suggested that after any boat collects a certain number of points they would lose their licence to fish for a number of months or altogether.

The commission also wants to switch from paper logbooks to electronic logs and reporting and satellite monitoring of vessels longer than 10 metres. This is currently confined to those longer than 15 metres.