1. Effective Control of the Landing Obligation
Landing Obligation Seminar
15 November 2017

2. Control and enforcement of the landing obligation
Sea and land based aspects to control and enforcement:
On land – control of landing/post landing and reporting activities;
At sea – control of catches, discards and reporting activities → main challenge.
Significant incentives exist for non-compliance at sea:
"Choke" issue;
High-grading/low-grading;
Catches of low value <MCRS;
Difficulties for competent authorities to prove non-compliance → low deterrence. ↓
Inadequate control and enforcement at sea will result in widespread non-compliance at sea.

3. Indications of non-compliance
To date, limited effective controls have been applied to fishing vessels at sea:
Little significant increase in the quantities of <MCRS landed and quantities reported discarded;
CCTV trials indicate differences in catch composition between CCTV equipped and non-equipped vessels;
EFCA coordinated last haul programmes and catch composition studies indicate discrepancies between verified reference data and unverified catch registration documents;
An escalation of problems are anticipated with full implementation in 2019.

4. Means to control the landing obligation at sea
Available options:
Routine control and inspection;
Aerial surveillance;
Comparison of reference data to non-reference data;
Control observers;
Continuous REM coverage of all catch handling and catch storage facilities. This is acknowledged as the most effective option and would entail:
CCTV coverage & data storage;
Supplementary REM tools e.g. sensors;
Automatic recognition software.

5. Problems encountered by competent authorities re CCTV installation
No EU legislation mandating the use of CCTV;
No regional agreement on the harmonised application of CCTV;
Reluctance for any unilateral introduction of CCTV by Member States – "level playing field";
Current legal provisions:
Member States shall adopt appropriate measures, allocate adequate financial, human and technical resources and set up all administrative and technical structures necessary for ensuring control, inspection and enforcement of activities carried out within the scope of the common fisheries policy. They shall make available to their competent authorities and officials all adequate means to enable them to carry out their tasks (Art 5(3) CR);
Member States shall adopt appropriate measures for ensuring control, inspection and enforcement of activities carried out within the scope of the CFP, including the establishment of effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties (Art 36(3) CFP);
For the purpose of monitoring compliance with the landing obligation, Member States shall ensure detailed and accurate documentation of all fishing trips and adequate capacity and means, such as observers, closed-circuit television (CCTV) and others. In doing so, Member States shall respect the principle of efficiency and proportionality (Art 15(13) CFP).
Control and enforcement of the CFP shall in particular be based on and shall include the following: (a) a global, integrated and common approach (Art 36(2) CFP).

6. Possible solution
Revision of the Control Regulation to include REM measures to effectively control the landing obligation at sea
Mandate the use of continuously recording CCTV systems on vessels with the capacity to discard high volumes of fish in a short period of time such as RSW tank, freezer and automatic grader equipped vessels;
For remaining vessels, coverage levels should be determined per fleet segment in accordance with regional risk assessments under the guidance of the EFCA;
Within each fleet segment individual vessels to be equipped with CCTV to be decided on a dynamic risk management basis (comparison of reference data from CCTV equipped vessels with non-equipped vessels).

7. Some potential challenges
Installation and maintenance costs;
Data access and exchange by flag and coastal state competent authorities;
Additional resources needed to review large volume of CCTV data;
Privacy laws.

8. Questions?

9. Working group questions
What measures should be adopted by Member States to ensure effective control and enforcement of the landing obligation at sea and should the use of CCTV be made mandatory in the revised Control Regulation?
What technical and legal challenges need to be addressed for the use of CCTV?
What measures would promote buy-in from industry?
How can the landing obligation be controlled now, before the revision of the Control Regulation?
How can we ensure that catch data is reliable under the landing obligation?