Illegal fishing

In 2015, the European Commission published a Communication on the experience with the application and implementation of Regulation 1005/2008, based on Member States' reports and a detailed study on that topic. The national reports of Member States regarding the implementation of Regulation 1005/2008 are not published. The Commission underlined that the EU measures are fully in line with global efforts against IUU fishing, in particular those of the FAO, the United Nations and numerous regional fisheries management organisations, which consider that IUU fishing represents about 15 per cent of all landing of fishing products.

The Commission reported of 1500 inspected vessels in the designated EU ports in 2012 and 2013 and of the finding of a number of infringements in this regard where sanctions were imposed by the flag state of the vessel in question. It is not known whether the number of IUU landings decreased significantly; the Commission only reported in its Communication of such a decrease in one Spanish port. Since 2010, more than 200 import consignments have been refused entry by Member States, because the required documentation that the catch had been legal was not submitted (page 3); again, it is not known whether these figures vary from previous data. Generally, Member States’ authorities had become more attentive to possible IUU fishing consignments; in numerous cases, they had been alerted by the Commission and had increased the inspections and other control measures. Also the cooperation between the customs, veterinary and fisheries authorities within different Member States as well as with the authorities of other Member States increased remarkably.