The control of the Landing Obligation in France

The report finds that France significantly delayed the implementation of reporting requirements for the landing obligation until 2019 and failed to sanction any infringements in 2017 and 2018. It highlights a lack of effective enforcement at sea and suggests that the adoption of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) is a necessary step to improve data reliability and compliance.

• French authorities delayed the full implementation of reporting obligations for fishers regarding the landing obligation by more than four years, only completing the process in 2019.
• There is evidence that the landing obligation is not being enforced in French waters, as no infringements were sanctioned by authorities in 2017 or 2018.
• Between 2015 and 2019, French fishers were unable to separately record catches below the minimum conservation reference size or distinguish de minimis exemptions due to outdated electronic and paper logbook software.
• The French government is planning to launch a pilot project in 2020 using Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) to monitor the implementation of the landing obligation.
• The 'quota top-up' mechanism, which bases fishing opportunities on catches rather than landings, may lead to overfishing if illegal discards remain unreported and are not accounted for in scientific stock assessments.
• French authorities have shifted toward a risk-based approach for sea inspections rather than increasing the total number of inspections, which have remained stable or decreased.

APA

Druel, E. (2019). The control of the Landing Obligation in France. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/44olkpm3/the-control-of-the-landing-obligation-in-france-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

Druel, Elisabeth. The control of the Landing Obligation in France. ClientEarth, 2019. https://www.clientearth.org/media/44olkpm3/the-control-of-the-landing-obligation-in-france-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Druel |first1=Elisabeth |title=The control of the Landing Obligation in France |publisher=ClientEarth |date=October 2019 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/44olkpm3/the-control-of-the-landing-obligation-in-france-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{druel2019control, author = {Druel, Elisabeth}, title = {{The control of the Landing Obligation in France}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2019}, month = oct, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/44olkpm3/the-control-of-the-landing-obligation-in-france-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }