An unpublished Commission evaluation of the Baltic Member States fisheries control points out Poland as the main culprit, but with severe problems in Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark and Latvia. The results are alarming, confirming the picture ICES already has pointed out, that illegal landings of cod is a major problem in the Baltic Sea.
During 2005 and 2006, the EU Commission fisheries inspectors have conducted more than 200 inspections in the six cod-fishing Baltic EU Member States. They have compared the catches during the inspection and the reports of four other landings of the same vessels. The differences are striking. In all cases, the vessels have reported larger catches at the days of inspections. For Polish vessels, the difference is 48,7 %, Swedish 21,4 %, Lithuanian 15,6 %, German 13,6 %, Danish 12,7 % and Latvian vessels 7,5 %.
The comission evaluation report, which is available under “further information” below, concludes: “It was observed by Commission Inspectors that the serious level of unrecorded catches was inter alia as a result of the poor inspection and surveillance in particular, the poor quality and frequency of inspection in place to ensure the accuracy of the recorded data. These findings are in line with the assessment of ICES for the region.”
Axel Wenblad, General Director of the Swedish National Board of Fisheries, commented: “It is unacceptable and the Board of Fisheries will further increase it’s efforts to create an efficient landing control. The industry stakeholders do have an important responsibility and need to take serious actions to increase trust with the consumers.”
Henrik Svenberg, Chair of the Swedish Fishermen’s Federation, denied the claims that Swedish fishermen fish above their limits:”Swedish fishermen are not served by overfishing or misreporting. We have absolutely not exceeded our quota. For example, last year we landed around 2000 tonnes less cod than our quota.”
However, Svenberg says that if there are errors in the reporting system, they are willing to take part in correcting eventual errors. Svenberg continues: “There are no reasons to misreport when parts of the quota are still available at the end of the year.”
Staffan Danielsson, Policy Officer at the Fisheries Secretariat, commented: “ The figures are alarming, they confirm the ICES figures of the level of the illegal cod fishery in the Baltic Sea. The entire management system is undermined with this level of IUU fishing. Now it’s time to introduce a credible traceability system for Baltic cod and to really strenghen the national fisheries control in all Baltic cod-fishing nations. The Member States have all agreed on the rules and regulations they are failing to comply with. They now need to shape up the control, one of many steps the Member States has to take is to make sure the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) really is working as effectively as possible. Hopefully the Baltic RAC conference on IUU fishing in March will be a wake up call for all Member States and stakeholders. “
Danish newspaper Politiken published on 10 Feb the results of a 14-day study of the Polish fishing industry. One of the cod traders was quoted saying over-fishing “is a must” to survive as a fisherman in Poland. Similar statements were made 4th May 06 in the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
The Danish article sparked criticism of Espersen, the largest seafood producer in Poland, and the sole supplier to McDonald’s Europe. Espersen has conducted its own study, where they investigated over-fishing in Poland, and based on EUROSTAT figures, estimates more than 5,000 metric tons of illegal cod was landed in 2005 – over 40 percent higher than the quota. “That’s totally unacceptable,” Espersen CEO Nielsen commented.
Nielsen denies his firm’s Polish operations use illegal cod, and said that the company has set up traceability agreements with all its Polish suppliers last spring that require them to sign an agreement that they do not accept illegal fish. In addition, Espersen requires documentation that all supplies it receives have been reported to Polish authorities.
Nielsen also referred to the upcoming, currently negotiated multi-annual cod plan for the Baltic Sea, saying if the cod landings will stay within the limits of that plan it is defendable to buy Baltic cod.
Nielsen said the likely culprits behind the extensive over-fishing are Poland’s largely unregulated “garage producers,” which sell into the fresh fish market.
On May 4th 2006, the Chair of the Polish Fishermen´s Union, Grezegorz Halubek, stated in one of the leading Polish Newspapers, Gazeta Wyborcza: ”All polish fishermen fish above their quotas forced upon them by the EU-Commission, because if they would abide by the quotas the fishermen would die of hunger.”
Halubek said: ”Nobody abides by the quotas, therefore the fisheries inspectors have stopped inspecting. A few years ago they still controlled the landings. Bribes were common. Not anymore, since they would have to prosecute all polish fishermen, and no authority would like to have such a problem.”
The Gazeta article writes: ”Theoretically the fisheries inspectors could issue fines for up to 110 000 zloty (€28 000) for illegal fishing. But none of the fishermen’s organisations has ever heard of anyone ever getting a fine. That has simply never occurred”