Regional Inspectorate of Fisheries carried out more than 1,200 inspections between January and August 2017
The Regional Inspectorate of Fisheries (IRP) has conducted 1,245 inspections under 564 missions carried out on all islands until August 31, covering a total of 3,812 tonnes of fish.
In the same period of 2016, the IRP carried out 425 missions. This means that the number of missions increased 33% in 2017, compared to the previous year.
As for the total number of inspections, 1,033 focused on professional fishing and marketing of fish, while the remaining focused on recreational fishing activities.
In eight months, the IRP carried out 77% of the missions defined for this year on the islands of Faial, Pico, Terceira and São Miguel, registering an average of 130 missions on each of these islands.
With regard to other islands of the archipelago, IRP conducts missions on a regular basis, with an average of nine missions. So far, it has already carried out 50 inspections on average per island.
Over the course of these inspection missions, this body has identified various situations of non-compliance with established legal measures. It has already confirmed 123 cases of misconduct: 120 in professional fishing activities, one in the marketing of fish and two in recreational fishing activities.
In addition to the infractions detected by IRP, the National Republican Guard has confirmed 157 cases of administrative offences: 53 in professional fishing activity, seven in the marketing of fish and 97 in recreational fishing activities.
As for the total number of missions carried out, 56 were carried out jointly with other entities with powers in fisheries inspection, namely with the Maritime Police, GNR, Navy and Regional Inspectorate of Economic Activities.
The main infringements detected are related to the non-compliance with the minimum catch size established for some species, such as red seabream, blackbelly rosefish and European conger, as well as with the failure to record mandatory data in Fishing Logs.
The Regional Inspectorate of Fisheries presented in Horta these data during the monthly meeting of the Committee on the Programming and Planning of the Integrated Information and Support System for Surveillance, Monitoring and Control of Fishing Activity (SIFICAP). This body involves all entities with supervisory powers at national level.