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Tom Wise MEP in the European Parliament Ind - Dem Group UK Independence Party UKIP Eastern Region Region

Piracy on the High Seas: what will you do about it Commissioner Borg?


At a policy meeting on the morning of 10th January 2008, Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Joe Borg, stated that fishing "outside quota" should be considered as illegal fishing. He further suggested that not only should vessels fishing illegally be "blacklisted", but also that where states have a history of illegal fishing, fishing vessels carrying the flag of that state should be "blacklisted".

According to Special Report on the Common Fisheries Policy, issued by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in November 2007 , "In Spain none of the catches by vessels under 10 metres in length were taken into account by quota monitoring, even though such vessels account for a substantial part of the national fleet"

The report noted that sales notes of frozen fish products (estimated by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture itself at 298,000 tonnes in 2005) were simply not recorded.

Most outrageously, the report notes that; "In Spain, for 2005, the data declared to the Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (DG Fish) for landings by Spanish ships in Spain are approximately 40% less than the data recorded in national databases;". Such contempt do the Spanish authorities have for the rules, they don't even bother trying to hide the evidence. In November 2007, it was estimated by the EU's Scientific Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), and the International Committee for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), that the cases of catches of certain species in Iberian waters may be as high as 75% above the authorised TAC.

I have formally asked the Commissioner how he intends to deal with Spain in the light of his comments, and the evidence, discussed above, of Spanish government complicity in illegal fishing. By his own definition, it would appear that there is a very good case for banning all Spanish fishing vessels from EU waters.

Tom Wise MEP

Ea of Dune

haha I will be interested to see what happens over this.

Ea of dune