Inspectors checked on just 6% of Irish trawlers in 2022
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Only 6% of Irish-flagged trawlers were subjected to checks by this country’s fishery inspection officers last year compared to far higher numbers for many other countries, according to official figures supplied by the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA).
Last year, the SFPA said it used a "risk-based methodology for inspection" of fishing boats to carry out checks on catches and Norwegian-registered vessels came top for inspections at 92%.
The SFPA said 41% of Spanish-flagged vessels, which have for a long time had a significant presence in Irish waters, were inspected. A similar percentage of British and French-flagged vessels were inspected, while 33% of Belgium-flagged trawlers were also checked.
An SFPA spokesman said last year there were 45,031 reported fish landings in the state, 95% of which were from Irish-registered vessels.
Of all these landings, a total of 3,604 inspections were carried out using a risk-based methodology. This includes inspections at landing, administrative inspections, and inspections at sea both by the SFPA and inspections which were undertaken by the Irish Naval Service as part of a service level agreement between the SFPA and Department of Defence.
In terms of landings in tonnage in our ports, the SFPA said Irish vessels topped the chart at nearly 156,000 tonnes, while Norway came in second with around 50,000 tonnes, followed by the British trawlers with approximately 25,000 tonnes.
Denmark’s vessels offloaded 12,582 tonnes and the French 11,639 tonnes. By contrast, the Spanish only landed 8,633 tonnes. On the lower end of the scale the Belgians landed 3,710 tonnes and the Germans 333 tonnes.
In terms of the number of individual fish off-loadings in our ports, the SFPA said Irish vessels accounted for 42,931 of them. Way behind, but in second place were the British with 662, followed by the French at 590, the Spanish with 480, and the Belgians at 291.
Meanwhile, Norway accounted for 52, Denmark 17 and Germany seven.
The biggest landings of fish in Ireland from British-registered vessels were at Greencastle port, on the western shores of Lough Foyle in the northeast of the Inishowen Peninsula in Co. Donegal.
“The majority of landings from UK-registered vessels there increased by 27% from 296 landings in 2021 to 369 last year, while the overall tonnage landing into Greencastle from their vessels increased by 28% from 331 to 422 tonnes,” the SFPA spokesman said.
Irish ports are also experiencing an increase in the numbers of landings from Belgian fishing vessels. The number of landings from Belgian vessels increased by 31%, from 223 to 291 between 2021 and 2022, while the tonnage increased from 2,770 to 3,710, a rise of 34%.
However, the SFPA spokesman said during the same period the number of landings from French vessels decreased from 624 to 590 while the tonnage decreased from 11,929 to 11,639.
The spokesman added that daily operational inspection work performed by SFPA officers is crucial to promote compliance among industry stakeholders.
“This includes conducting regular inspections to ensure compliance with regulations, providing guidance and advice to industry and taking enforcement action when necessary to address non-compliance,” he said.
Inspections are carried out to ensure compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.