A study published on Thursday 7 March at the request of the NGO Our Fish aims to demonstrate that camera systems on board vessels can put an end to the practice of discarding fish at sea, without violating the privacy of fishermen and without violating data protection rules.
This study confirms the European Commission's intentions. As part of the revision of the rules on controls on fishing activities, the Commission proposes, to allow adequate control of the landing obligation, to equip, “on the basis of a risk assessment, a certain percentage of fishing vessels with continuous recording devices, including closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance”. However, at this stage, MEPs of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee are rather against this system, for reasons of data protection and privacy (see EUROPE 12198/12).
The authors of the study believe that, although there are legitimate concerns about the use of on-board cameras, “they should not be used as an excuse not to act”.
“Protecting privacy while ending the wasteful practice of discarding dead and dying fish at sea can be achieved by using video monitoring on board fishing vessels”, said Rebecca Hubbard, Program Director at Our Fish.
The study provides ideas to circumvent possible problems in the use of CCTV: - temporary surveillance by CCTV, where there are grounds to suspect non-compliance with the rules on compulsory landing; - surveillance limited to the technical process, without making individuals identifiable; - pixellisation of registered persons so as to make identification impossible; - surveillance at certain stages (landing, sorting and processing of the product). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)