Due to overfishing of horse mackerel, blue whiting and monkfish in Galicia, the European Commission has fined the Spanish government and cut their quotas for 2012.
The largest sanction will apply to horsemackerel, for which the 2012 TAC will now be reduced by about 15%. The fines and quota reductions will then be passed on to individual vessels, based on overfishing within their fleet segment. However, representatives of the Spanish fishing industry said that these cuts would lead to an increase in discards, as horsemackerel is often caught as bycatch.
Cases where the Commission punishes Member States for the excesses of their fleet tend to be rare. Chasing such offences through the courts is often a complex and time-consuming legal process. Staff must provide input to the casework along with their everyday jobs, costing the Commission manpower. This leads to only the most obvious offences being punished, but they may well represent just the tip of the iceberg.