Purse seiners. (Photo: ORoxo/CC BY-SA 2.0)
SPAIN
Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 03:40 (GMT + 9)
Under the proposed reform of the State’s Maritime Fisheries Act that has recently been approved, those who commit minor or serious administrative violations in the field of outdoor fishing waters can reduce the fine up to a half. This will be possible provided it does not exceed EUR 15,000 and does not involve the allocation of points.
For the Spanish government, this is the main novelty of the reform, as it will make it possible to expedite sanction processing and increase the State’s revenue.
As reported by the agency Europa Press, the beneficiaries of this measure will have 20 calendar days to reduce the fine by 30 per cent or 50 per cent in the event that the offender has accepted the fine before the end of the process.
In the event that the penalty is derived from more than one offense, it will not be able to reduce its amount if the fines exceed EUR 20,000.
Furthermore, it will not be possible to qualify for this option for those workers who choose the conditional suspension of the execution of the penalty, which remains as before except that it rises from three to five years the previous non-penalty period.
On the other hand, the reform includes new violation cases: minor, serious and very serious ones.
One of the minor ones is the practice of recreational fishing, and one the serious breaches is the organization of recreational fishing competitions without authorization or without complying it, or recreational spearfishing practice with any immersion respirator equipment and using hydroplanes or similar vehicles.
Serious offenses include:
- Taking illegal buoys or beacons even if they are not using them;
- Not keeping the Fisheries Journal or the Electronic Fisheries Journal onboard;
- The lack of identification of catches or boxes or packages that are carried on board;
- Distorting or hiding data on the landing catches outside the European Union;
- Not informing the Spanish authorities on the registration in third country vessels;
- Not having or carrying off communication devices;
- Not sending the manual localization positions when it is mandatory;
- Hiding or concealing evidence to the inspection;
- Not having wind scale.
According to the reform, the penalties go from 8 to 13 possibilities. This implies that after receiving a minor offense, it will be possible to perform a public reprimand for minor or serious offenses, and later a fine is imposed and, if appropriate, the points will be allocated.
The amounts of the fines remain as before except for very serious infringements, which double the maximum from EUR 300,000 to EUR 600,000.
Anyway, the fine will be quantified in terms of economic benefit from the infringement, the size of the vessel, the nature of the injury caused and the possibility of restoring such damage.
Among other issues, the new fisheries act implies that the seizure of the ship shall be ordered in case of very serious offense while its temporary detention is to be authorized for six months (minor), one year (serious) or three years (very serious).
Subsequently, it will be possible to cancel the economic operator status for two (minor), three (serious) or seven (very serious) years, and if the offense is very serious in relation to the control of the activity and the species may be reduced or fishing rights may be cancelled.
While sanctioning powers are kept, the amount necessary to decide whether the Secretary General of Fisheries or the Minister himself is raised from EUR 150,000 to EUR 300,000.
The money from the payment of maritime fishery penalties will be used by the General Secretariat of Fisheries for its budget.