Denmark: Fisheries Agency refines methods for selecting which boats need to be monitored

by Eurofish
Danish vessels

Fishermen are the butt of many jokes about “the size of the fish that got away!” But when the honesty (or lack of it) with which fishermen report their catches becomes a fleetwide concern, fishery managers with only limited resources at their disposal must pick and choose which vessels they can trust and which need a watchful eye kept on them.

According to the Danish Fisheries Agency, changing conditions in recent years such as greater closures of allowed areas and tighter quotas on catches have led to increased industry circumvention of rules governing fishing activities. For example, some vessels have changed the ports where they land their fish to ones where they perceive a smaller chance of being monitored. While the overall volume of fish landed in Denmark is expected to decline because of Brexit’s impact in the North Sea and tighter EU quotas in the Baltic and Kattegat, the problems with circumvention and misreporting are expected to rise. The problems are reportedly greatest in the northeast areas of Denmark.

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Therefore, the Fisheries Agency has introduced a new method for choosing which vessels to carefully watch, or as the agency diplomatically explains, “vessels that have a challenge in complying with the EU Common Fishery Policy.” Vessels that are thus “challenged”, as evidenced by past behavior, will be singled out for monitoring, including by estimating when and at which port, they are expected to land, so that they are greeted by Fisheries Agency officers who promise to help the fishing vessel captain accurately report his/her activities.

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