20 October 2009
The Council of Ministers, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, adopted a 10% margin of tolerance between logbook estimate and landing declaration, as part of a new EU Control Regulation, after the NFFO and its allies put up an epic effort to block the new rule.
Although the Federation marshalled wide support from fishermen across all member states, the Commission signalled at the outset of the Council that this was one of its “red line” issues and forced the regulation through. Every regional advisory council has warned the Commission that consistent compliance with a 10% margin of tolerance is unachievable because of the difficulty of estimating small amounts of by-catch species to that level of accuracy.
With the imminent arrival of electronic logbooks, it is a now matter of mathematical certainty that enforcement authorities across Europe will repeatedly detect multiple technical infringements of the margin of tolerance. The fate of thousands of fishermen will depend on the authorities’ discretion to prosecute or not.
The NFFO and other fishing federations have offered the opportunity to place independent experts aboard their vessels to demonstrate that estimating catch on board consistently to that level of accuracy is not achievable because of a range of practical considerations.
A recent case in Grimsby demonstrated the issue very well: a skipper was prosecuted for a discrepancy between his logbook estimate and his landing declaration on plaice, which as a recovery stock had a margin of tolerance of 8%, despite the fact that his producer organisation had plenty of plaice quota at the time and had no quota restrictions on that species.
No issue better demonstrates the gulf in understanding between the Eurocrats in their offices and the realities on board a fishing vessel.