The first in a line of Danish trawl fishermen reported for fishing in a protected, closed-for-fishing area of the Kattegat has been slapped with heavy fines and had his license revoked for a month.
From 1 January 2009 Sweden and Denmark jointly closed a part of the Kattegat for all fisheries, and enforced restrictions in three other zones. The move was an attempt to protect the seriously threatened cod in the area.
Last summer Greenpeace reported that they had video proof that three vessels from the fishing port of Gilleje on the northern tip of Zealand had been trawling in the forbidden zone and that two other had been moving around systematically in a way that strongly suggested that they were indeed trawling, as well.
Greenpeace handed over their proof to both Swedish and Danish Police, and The Swedish Board of Fisheries and the national Coast Guard later confirmed to FISH that no less than 20 Danish fishing vessels had been caught red-handed fishing in the no-fishing zone in less than a year.
After some jurisdiction haggling, it has now been decided between the two nations that Danish fishermen illegally fishing in the area will be processed by Danish Police and the Danish courts, but the Danish Fishing Directorate has already started meting out administrative sanctions, the first of which was decided recently.
A fisherman from Gilleleje, a fishing village described by some Swedish colleagues/competitors as “a pirate nest”, was fined 100,000 DKK (€13,400), had his catch worth €40,000–70,000 forfeited, and his fishing license revoked for a month.
Swedish observers saw the move as a first step by Danish authorities in taking on this increasingly hot political issue in a less lenient way than before.