Response to interpellation 2022/23:299 on misreporting of fish catches
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government prioritizes fisheries control highly and supports the EU's review of the regulatory framework to strengthen control and catch reporting 1. KD emphasizes that the data collection is good and that ICES provides annual advice based on the precautionary approach 1 2. KD claims that incorrect estimation of the distribution between species is not a violation in the Baltic Sea 2 and underlines that Sweden is leading the work to introduce a specific tolerance margin for species composition 3. KD considers that the dynamics of the pelagic stocks are affected by several factors 3 and wants long-term sustainable fish stocks 4. KD prioritizes continuously developing fisheries control to ensure that management decisions are complied with 4. S argues that systematic cheating is occurring in the reporting of catch size and that industrial fishing is pressing the stocks 5. S considers that the current penalties are too low and that knowledge of misreporting must reach the EU before the quota setting 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Linnéa Wickman has asked me if I intend to inform the EU countries' fisheries ministers about the incorrect reporting before the upcoming quota setting, if I intend to take measures in light of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management's alarm regarding systematic incorrect reporting, and if so, what initiatives I will take.
Mr. Speaker! Fisheries control is regulated largely through EU legislation, but there are also national rules. The most important objectives for the EU's control system are to ensure that only permitted quantities of fish are caught, that necessary data to assess fishing opportunities are collected, and that rules and sanctions are applied equally within the European Union.
There are deficiencies in the EU's current control system, and the government therefore supports the review of the regulatory framework that the EU Commission initiated in 2018. Within the review of the regulatory framework, a number of measures are proposed that are expected to strengthen fisheries control and catch reporting. Nationally, fisheries control is also prioritized highly, and the responsible authorities, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Coast Guard, have, at the government's request, identified a number of measures to strengthen fisheries control. The authorities' appropriations have subsequently also been increased for this specific purpose.
To address deficiencies in compliance with the landing obligation and to improve catch reporting, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is conducting a pilot project with camera monitoring of the catch on board fishing vessels. The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management's pilot project will provide valuable knowledge and experience of the equipment before risk vessels throughout the EU are expected to be equipped with camera monitoring systems through the revised control regulation.
In large-scale pelagic fishing, the catch is landed unsorted. During inspections in ports around the Baltic Sea, it has been shown that the total amount in the catches corresponds relatively well with the control results, while the estimation between different species, especially herring and sprat, varies to a greater extent.
A series of measures to improve catch reporting in pelagic fishing are currently being implemented. The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management has begun a review of the rules and procedures applicable to pelagic landings and is conducting trials together with pelagic vessels to improve the possibilities for fishers to estimate the catch composition on board.
The data collection and research basis for being able to estimate catch levels and the status of the pelagic stocks in the Baltic Sea are, however, considered to be good, and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, therefore provides so-called analytical advice annually on maximum sustainable yield for the pelagic stocks in the Baltic Sea.
In ICES advice for decisions on TACs and quotas, i.e., total allowable catches, the application of the precautionary approach and the EU's multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea are included, which shall ensure that fishing opportunities are sustainable in the long term according to maximum sustainable yield. The precautionary approach means that the risk of the stock falling outside safe biological limits shall be low in the long term. ICES considers uncertainty factors and other weaknesses in the data basis if ICES assesses that these risk affecting the stocks negatively.
Compliance with fishing regulations is a prerequisite for the goals of fisheries management to be achieved and for decided fishing quotas to be followed. Regulatory compliance and fisheries control therefore have high priority for the government.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Rural Affairs, for the answer to the interpellation!
"It could be that one deliberately reports incorrectly in order to maximize their quota utilization and indirectly their profit by creating competitive advantages against fishers who report correctly."
An employee at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management speaks in a report from SVT Gävleborg. Based on their controls of the fishing, they suspect that extensive and systematic cheating is occurring in the reporting of the size of the catches. It is described as more of a rule than an exception that the actual catches are larger than what is reported. Above all, the agency describes that the actual distribution between the species spadetfish and herring, as we call it where I live, is reported incorrectly.
Along the coasts of the Bothnian Sea and the Baltic Sea, there is a heavy fishing pressure on sprat and herring from large-scale industrial trawling. It is precisely among the large-scale industrial trawlers that the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management sees that the actual catches are larger and that the distribution of the fish species being taken does not match. A suspicion that can be had in this is that, for example, sprat is reported as herring or sprat in order to continue fishing for sprat even though the quota has already been filled.
The seriousness of the alarms regarding misreporting should be seen in light of the fact that industrial fishing over the last 20 years has reported an extreme increase in catches, while the catches for the local small-scale commercial fishers have decreased significantly. Their quotas have not been able to be filled for a long time. The industrial fishing's extraction and pressure on the fish stocks is therefore great, probably even greater than what we know.
For a long time, small-scale coastal fishers, sport fishers, county administrative boards, and municipalities along the east coast have been able to consistently demonstrate a very worrying and acute situation for the sprat, which plays a central role in the ecosystem and for other species in the sea. The acute situation for the sprat is confirmed by SLU, which during test fishing last year caught approximately 8 percent of the number they caught in the 1980s.
This has a series of consequences for the entire ecosystem, for the fish's ability to withstand external environmental impacts, but also for Sweden's food production and preparedness and for the survival of the small-scale commercial fishers along the coast.
Mr. Speaker! I note that the Minister in the interpellation response describes that the Government shares the view that the EU's current control system is a problem and supports the review of the regulatory framework that was initiated a full five years ago.
No answer is given, however, to the question of whether the Minister will ensure that the information regarding the extensive misreporting that HaV clearly demonstrates will be reported to the Minister's colleagues and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ICES. This is a completely fundamental and important piece of knowledge to share with researchers at ICES and the Minister's colleagues before the assessment of upcoming quotas.
I hope that the Minister, in his next contribution, can answer the question of whether the knowledge regarding the error reporting will be passed on.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the member for their great interest in fishing and the situation of the fish stocks.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, HaV is reviewing routines and rules for pelagic landings and is conducting trials together with pelagic vessels to improve the possibilities for fishers to estimate the catch composition already on board. That is exactly what I want authorities to do – help companies do the right thing. It is positive that the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is carrying out those types of targeted control measures. Fishery control, as stated, is a high priority for the government.
Unlike what the interpellator states, the controls show a good estimation of the total catch quantity. Failing to correctly estimate the total catch is a violation. However, incorrectly estimating the distribution between species in a catch is not a violation in the Baltic Sea.
Pelagic catches are stored in tanks on board the vessel. The catches that are to be used for human consumption are normally sorted at landing, but the catches that are to be used for industrial purposes, for example animal feed, are not sorted.
If sorting does not occur, the different species shall be determined with the help of sampling according to a certain method. The challenges with this sampling and that catches are not sorted upon landing are shared with all EU countries that receive that type of catch.
Herring and sprat are covered as the member knows from the common fisheries policy and are utilized by many member states. The data collection and research basis to be able to estimate catch levels and the status of the pelagic stocks in the Baltic Sea are, however, considered sufficiently good, and ICES therefore, as I mentioned earlier, provides annually so-called analytical advice on maximum sustainable yield for the pelagic stocks in the Baltic Sea.
In ICES advice, the application of the precautionary approach and the EU's multi-annual plan for the Baltic Sea are included, which shall ensure that fishing opportunities are sustainable in the long term according to maximum sustainable yield.
I do not perceive that the interpellation in essence is about the currents in the Baltic Sea, but of course there are connections. In that context, I must repeat what I have said in other debates here in the chamber: We must be aware that the currents issue is complicated and that knowledge is still lacking. Overall, it is important that we first find out what is the cause or, probably, the causes of something in order to subsequently be able to take the right measures to resolve any problems.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! If one has grown up on the coast in Gävleborg, it is impossible not to see what negative impact the fishing of, for example, larger herring has had and has on our coastal communities. There, small-scale coastal fishing is being wiped out, and edible fish is hardly left, to the benefit of industrial fishing and its trawling for fish that are ground down into fish meal and thus do not become food on our plates and do not increase Swedish food production.
It is also impossible not to see what potential viable fish stocks would have for the local jobs and the economy, Swedish food production and tourism, and of course for the small-scale professional fishers who have existed for generations, who remain and who are struggling, as well as obviously for healthier marine ecosystems.
It is obvious that decisive action and prompt administrative and protective measures are required to secure the fish stocks. I note that the Minister describes the state of knowledge as relatively uncertain.
I actually note that researchers, not least from ICES, have said that their models become so uncertain precisely because the fish reporting that comes in is incorrect. This is absolutely crucial. If we do not know how much fish is being caught, it becomes very difficult to assess what are long-term sustainable fish stocks.
Reporting an incorrect distribution of salmon and sprat today results in a penalty fee in any case. It is around 2,000 kronor regardless of how large the violation is and regardless of the total value of the catch.
What we need to ask politically, regardless of political color, is whether this is reasonable and whether the incentives are strong enough to report correctly. This also distorts competition, of course. It is still a fact that HaV reports that a large and systematic misreporting is observed.
Given the serious situation we see regarding the fish stocks, and so that, for example, the herring does not meet the same fate as the cod, we need to act promptly. What I mean there is that the Minister has a very important task and a very important mission ahead to ensure that the knowledge that our own Swedish authority has also reaches the EU when quota setting is to take place.
I do not think the answers so far really indicate that the Minister will ensure this. But I hope that the Minister has the opportunity to clarify this in his next contribution.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by stating that the government's overall objective is that the administrative measures shall be decided in line with the common fisheries policy's goals and principles.
It is neither entirely new for 2022-2023 nor any secret that catch estimates do not always match. It is a situation that both the commission and ICES are aware of and which is included as an uncertainty factor.
With this said, it is naturally important that reporting is improved and that deficiencies in the regulatory framework are corrected. Therefore, the work that Sweden is currently leading, in its capacity as the Presidency of the EU, regarding a review of the EU's regulatory framework for fisheries control is important. This includes, among other things, that a specific tolerance margin for the estimation of the species composition in a catch is also introduced in the Baltic Sea, that is, to address the problem that HaV's controls have shown. And the government supports this.
But we are not sitting still in the boat. Even at the national level, development work is ongoing. The Government continues with the budget reinforcement for fisheries control that the Riksdag decided on in 2022.
To ensure correct reporting of landed catch at unsorted landings, HaV is developing the regulatory framework regarding weighing and species composition sampling. HaV also intends to produce guidelines and develop current control routines for this part of the regulatory framework. This work is being carried out, which is extremely essential, in cooperation with other member states.
HaV has, among other things, developed and clarified the core processes for task submission and basic data, sea monitoring, field control, and administrative control, but also guidance and support. Dependencies internally and externally regarding collaborative authorities have been clarified.
The advice from ICES regarding the stocks in the Baltic Sea will be presented sometime in May or June. This will then form the basis for the negotiations and decisions at the Council of Ministers meeting in October regarding the fishing opportunities for 2024.
On 17 October 2022, a few days before I took office as Minister for Rural Affairs, a unanimous Council of Ministers agreed on the fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2023. Sweden acted, in line with the position that had received support in the Riksdag, for quotas that shall lead to viable stocks throughout the Baltic Sea.
SLU points out de facto that there are many factors that affect fish stocks and the conduct of fishing.
In addition to fishing, the dynamics and development of the herring stocks are assumed to be affected by a number of different factors, for example eutrophication, salinity, competing species present alongside herring, and not least the presence of predators such as seals, other fish, and cormorants.
Linnéa Wickman (S)
Mr. Speaker! Some time ago, the commercial fisherman Dennis Bergman, from Bergmans fisk in Norrsundet in my home municipality, visited the Riksdag. His clear appeal to us politicians was: Politicians must wake up. We need a significantly reduced extraction of fish in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. Use the precautionary principle! The coastal cod population is almost completely gone, and we must pull the handbrake.
I note that the Minister in the response to the interpellation describes an ongoing pilot project with voluntary camera surveillance of the catch on board the fishing vessels. It will be a way to increase knowledge about what further measures we need to take to rectify this systematic misreporting. But unfortunately, there has been very low interest from the industrial fishing sector to participate in this. I believe there may be as few as two vessels involved.
I want to ask the Minister if he truly judges that it is possible to achieve a sensible result and if he is satisfied that the industrial fishing unfortunately seems to have such a small commitment to ensuring that the catch reporting is correct.
I would like to conclude by thanking the Minister for the debate. It is a fact that the only reasonable and necessary thing is that it must be expensive to cheat. It must be easy to get caught. And it must also cost if one is discovered. This may be our last chance moving forward to save the salmon stocks. And the absolute minimum that we should be able to do is to ensure that we do not have any systematic misreporting, which the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management has now nevertheless alerted us about. We cannot be satisfied with that.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the members for a good debate. I feel that we all fundamentally.
(THE PRESIDING SPEAKER: I would like to remind that the Chamber's deliberations must not be interrupted by observers in the gallery.)
Mr. Speaker! I feel that we all fundamentally want the same thing - long-term sustainable fish stocks that can be utilized by a competitive fishing industry, consisting of both larger vessels and a more small-scale coastal fishery. For this, it is required that we continue to develop several different parts of the fisheries management.
The advice from ICES is the basis for the management decisions we make within the EU, particularly regarding the level of the annual fishing opportunities. That ICES has access to relevant data is therefore absolutely crucial and something that we continuously work to improve.
The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management's mandate regarding the causal relationships that specifically affect the flow is an example of this, as is that the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission have committed to improving the state of knowledge on the same issue together with ICES.
Without a follow-up on whether the administrative decisions are complied with, we will not reach our goals. Therefore, we must also continuously develop the fisheries control. This is ongoing at both the EU level and nationally and is a task that the government prioritizes.
During the six months that I have served as Minister for Rural Affairs, we have also expanded the tools for HaV to take measures that will lead to the stocks recovering in a better way.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.