The European Court of Auditor released a report saying despite progress in the last decade, the EU still does not have a sufficiently effective system of fisheries controls to support the Common Fisheries Policy.
The auditors visited four member states (Spain, France, Italy and the UK/Scotland) and found:
- None sufficiently verified the accuracy of fishing fleets capacity
- None sufficiently verified the information on the vessels in fleet registers
- None verified the tonnage of fishing vessels
- Two countries had not verified engine power
- Significant discrepancies between vessel details in the fleet register and those in supporting documents.
Overall, say the auditors, the member states examined were implementing fisheries management measures adequately.
Satellite-based vessel tracking systems provided powerful information for monitoring and controlling fishing activities. But as a result of exemptions provided by the Control Regulation,
About 89 percent of the EU fleet is not monitored due to Control Regulation exemptions for satellite-based vessel tracking systems.
Despite this, the report stated the member states managed the uptake of fishing quotas well. However, there is a lack of transparency when managing quota distribution.
---
For more seafood news and updates, follow us on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for our daily newsletter.
