Power to punish `flagship' trawlers extended

Ireland has been given wider scope to take legal action against foreign "flagships" within the 200mile limit following a recent judgment by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.

Coastal states may be able to regulate the behaviour of fishing vessels beyond fishing quotas, the size of catches and conservation of stocks, as a result of the judgment. Following recent clashes involving flagships (usually Spanish-owned vessels flying the flag of another EU country to avail of its fishing quota) and Irish vessels off the south-west coast, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, said he intended to review the law, which prevented the Naval Service from intervening in incidents such as harassment on fishing grounds outside the 12-mile limit.

The tribunal's judgment concerned a vessel registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines which was detained by the authorities in Guinea for an alleged smuggling offence. A majority of the court held that bunkering or refuelling fishing vessels in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of a coastal state was a fishing activity.

The state, therefore, was empowered to regulate it through its right to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the living resources in the EEZ under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Ireland ratified the UN Convention in June 1996 and was bound by it from July of that year. However, the convention has not been incorporated into Irish law, and Ireland's EEZ, which may extend up to 200 miles from the baselines, has not been defined.

The Nautical Institute's Irish branch, which intends to discuss the judgment at its next meeting, says the Minister must explore all legislative means possible in his review.

Earlier this week the Fine Gael spokesman on the marine, Mr Michael Finucane, called on the Minister to "come clean" on the flagship issue. He was referring to a £1 million fine levied by a British court on 12 Spanish flagships which breached British quotas in Irish waters. Some of the evidence given to Haverford West Crown Court was supplied by the Irish Naval Service. Mr Finucane said the Minister should seek the intervention of the EU Fisheries Commissioner to insist on a satisfactory explanation for some of the breaches, given that 95,707 kilos of illegally caught hake, and 265,531 kilos of illegally caught angler fish, were found on the vessels.