Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2015
299. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if any super trawlers have been boarded for inspection by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority or by the Irish Naval Service this week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42959/15]
View answerControl of the vessel within Ireland’s Exclusive Fisheries Zone is a matter for the Irish control authorities who monitor fishing activity of all vessels operating the area. The Control authorities have on-going information in relation to the vessels operating in the Irish Exclusive Fisheries zone including their activities and characteristics. Under the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 2006, all operational issues of this nature concerning sea fisheries control are, as a matter of law, exclusively for the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) and the Naval Service. As Minister, I am precluded from getting involved in operational matters including in relation to law enforcement.
The SFPA has advised me that it actively monitors the activity of the large pelagic freezer trawlers within Irish Exclusive Fisheries Zone and that these vessels have now left the area.
The SFPA has monitored the movements of these vessels when they were in the EFZ through VMS and declared catches through ERS. In general terms it advised that its monitoring indicated particular compliance risks around vessels with entitlements for individual species of fish. This risk assessment had informed the SFPA’s identification of some of those vessels as a high priority for at-sea inspection, and aircraft surveillance.
The SFPA is reliant on the seagoing fishery patrol activity of the Naval Service to verify compliance of vessels not landing into Ireland. Boarding vessels of this size at sea creates specific challenges and during the period when the vessels were in the EFZ, the operational decision of the naval service has been that weather has been too severe.
In relation to the overall framework for fisheries control in the EU, in October 2009 a new regulation dealing with fisheries controls was adopted. Council Regulation 1224/2009 establishes a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy. Control and inspection is now focused where it is most effective through an approach based on systematic risk analysis. Inspection procedures are standardised and harmonised for all stages in the market chain, including transport and marketing. The Control Regulations were introduced so that there is a common EU level playing field and to provide for an effective range of controls across EU waters.
