The European Commission has welcomed the new port state control scheme adopted in November last year by the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).
From now on, foreign fishing vessels will not be authorised to land frozen fish products in the ports of NEAFC members unless the state where the vessel is registered has given the port state a green light in advance.
From 1 May, prior notification of landings of frozen fish by foreign fishing vessels will have to include a declaration by the master of the vessels concerned of the catch on board. Before the landings can be authorised by the port state, the flag state must verify the information provided in the declaration. This means that the flag state must confirm that the fishing vessel had sufficient quota for the fish onboard and that the catch had been taken into account in the national monitoring quota uptake regime. The flag state must also confirm that the vessel was authorised to fish and that the area of catch has been verified through the records received via the satellite-based vessel monitoring system, known as VMS.
Without such confirmation no authorisation can be given by the port state and without authorisation no landings can occur.
