Brussels, 18/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 July, the European Commission published a blacklist of 66 boats accused of illegal fishing in waters around the globe, at least ten of which are claimed by Greenpeace to have links to European owners who are repeat offenders.
The creation of this list, which compiles the data of the regional fisheries organisations (RFOs), comes as part of the EU's efforts to fight overfishing. The boats named as pirate vessels, all of which in this case are registered outside the EU, may not sell their catch there, with 65% of all fish eaten by Europeans having been imported from third countries.
Adding a further four boats to the previous version from December of last year, the European list does not name the owners, who juggle the names of the boats, the financial vehicles and flags in order to put the authorities off the scent. However, Greenpeace claims that at least 10 of the boats on the list have links to European - Spanish and Portuguese - owners. One of these vessels, the Murtosa, which is of an unknown flag having taken Portuguese colours and then Togolese ones - received European subsidies in 1995, 10 years before being detected illegally fishing for cod in the Arctic waters.
Greenpeace, which has spent years tracking fish pirates, believed by the Commission to take a quarter of all fish caught in the world, would like to see a more effective European response. “As things stand, the list is just the tip of the iceberg”, says a representative of the NGO, Saskia Richartz.
Acknowledging that there is still much to be done in its fight against fish pirates, the Commission is focusing its efforts for the time being on the coastal states and flag issuers, which are accused of turning a blind eye. A further blacklist barring countries access to the European market is to be published in the autumn. Of the states in question, five (Fiji, Togo, Sri Lanka, Panama and Vanuatu) have already “made credible progress”, Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said in June. (LC/transl.fl)