Correspondence on unregulated fishing: EIR release

Information requested

"I would like to ask what correspondence the Scottish Government has received on the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing from fishermen and fishing organisations in the previous 12 months."

I wrote to you on 21 June 2023 and requested some clarification from you in order to allow us to identify and locate the information that you have asked for:

"Do you require only information on commercial fishing vessels stopped/boarded in Marine Protected Areas that have had enforcement action taken against them?

Also, further to your second request regarding unregulated fishing EIR Case Reference: 202300360584 as source information cannot be disclosed, I would like to know if statistics based around the different stakeholder requests would be acceptable?

If you would like to provide me with a telephone number or alternatively have a Microsoft Teams meeting to discuss these issues that would be great."

You responded to us on 21 June 2023 to say:

"On EIR Case Reference: 202300360582, yes I would be satisfied with commercial fishing vessels, I am not looking for information on people fishing for sport or their own consumption.

On EIR Case Reference: 202300360584 yes I would be satisfied to receive the statistics from stakeholder groups, and the total number to take account of individual fishermen who may have written separately."

Response

Thank you for your question relating to what correspondence the Scottish Government has received on the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing from fishermen and fishing organisations in the previous 12 months.

There have been 7 reports in the last 12 months related to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing as we interpret that term in relation to 3rd country vessels. However I would like to refer you to you to a recent Parliamentary Question which covered a similar request, Written question and answer: S6W-18567 | Scottish Parliament Website

There were 704 reports related to alleged illegal fishing in 2022 and 406 reports in 2023 so far. These reports come from a variety of sources both internal and external however, due to intelligence handling principles they are sanitised in such a way that it is not possible to distinguish the source including on whether they came from fishers or fishing organisations.”

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