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Greenpeace catches Danish vessels fishing illegally
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Greenpeace Sweden said it has documented “systematic,” “intensive” and “continuous” illegal fishing by Danish vessels within a protected area of the Kattegat that is closed for fishing.
On January 1, 2009 Sweden and Denmark together closed part of the Kattegat for all fisheries, and imposed limitations in three other areas to help protect the seriously threatened cod stocks in the region.
Two Greenpeace Sweden spokespeople claimed in an op-ed article in the Göteborgs-Posten morning daily to possess video evidence of three Danish vessels, as well as data from electronic supervision that strongly indicate that two other vessels were trawling in the no-fishing zone.
The environmental organisation said it had secretly installed monitoring equipment on six vessels measuring less than 15 metres from the Gilleje fishing port on Zealand’s northern tip. The European Union (EU) requires all vessels above that limit to carry Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) that let authorities supervise where the boats are fishing.
Five of those six ships, Greenpeace informed, were found to have ventured into the closed area, three of them were caught on video fishing illegally and two others were moving around systematically at very low speed – indicating that they were trawling.
All evidence gathered will now be given to the police, a spokesperson said.
The Swedish Board of Fisheries and the national Coast Guard corroborated that 20 Danish fishing vessels thus far have been caught in the act fishing in the no-fishing zone in under a year.
No cases have yet reached court. Denmark will decide on the possible revoking of licenses after Sweden’s legal process is completed.
However, formal charges were filed in one of the cases after a Coast Guard vessel nofollowed the Danish vessel to port and identified the skipper.
Photo documentation from a Coast Guard airplane allegedly showing trawl wires and others cast out will be shown in court. As no cases have been decided so far, it still has to be decided whether that constitutes enough proof.
Head of the Control Department in the Board of Fisheries Johan Löwenadler affirmed that no Swedish fishers have been caught fishing illegally. He added that he was “surprised” the Danes had been ignoring the ban “so flagrantly and frequently.”
Sweden’s Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Eskil Erlandsson was "both disappointed and disgusted."
He also said that he spoke with his Danish counterpart, who “is prepared to toughen Danish sanctions until this disobedience stops.”
In spring 2009, Greenpeace sank several huge stone boulders in the zone in a greatly publicised move to check bottom trawling in this Natura 2000 area. Just before the demonstration, the Danish colleague vowed to exit the accord if Sweden did not prevent the demonstration, which Sweden did not.
Greenpeace said the letter was provoked by pressure from the politically powerful fishers in Gilleje, one of the biggest fishing ports in Denmark.
Fishing Information and Services (FIS)
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