The Danish Directorate of Fisheries used a DNA test of cod in a trial in January about illegal fishing and this helped the successful prosecution of the offender. The accused’s logbook stated that the cod had been caught in the Baltic Sea. But the DNA test showed that the origin of the fish was the North Sea
The inspectorate says
the exact origin of fish is very important to fisheries inspection. Quotas vary in different waters, there may be a total ban in others, or the quota of a vessel may have been used up. It says some fishermen may
be tempted to declare
in the logbook that the fish comes from an area where
it could have been
caught legally.
The system of DNA ‘fingerprinting’ of fish was developed by the French national sea research institute a decade ago. It
has also been used to show that headless and tailless frozen white fish from Africa was being sold Illegally as much higher-priced fish (such a sole and plaice) on Spanish and Portuguese reatail markets,
The Danish inspectorate says there is a distinct genetic difference between cod from the Baltic Sea
and cod from the North
Sea. Although fish do
move around, there is a limit as to how far they swim. Technically speaking – there are genetic differences between
the stocks of cod in
various waters.
“We are very content
to have a clear sentence saying that we can use
DNA test as evidence in similar cases,” said Henrik
F. Nielsen, Inspector of Fisheries from The Inspectorate Fisheries
North. “We cannot use DNA test in every case. However, when other things indicate that the fish were in
fact caught at quite a different place, where this kind of fishing is illegal,
a DNA test may be the conclusive evidence of
illegal fishing.”
