EU Fisheries Control System Factsheet

The factsheet evaluates the European Commission's proposal to revise the EU Fisheries Control System, highlighting improvements in electronic record-keeping and trip identification for EU-caught fish while criticizing loopholes in the traceability of imported seafood, such as the lack of mandatory IMO numbers and imprecise FAO fishing area codes.

• The European Commission's proposal introduces several improvements for EU-caught seafood, including the use of a unique fishing trip identification number in logbooks and sales notes, more stringent rules for merging or splitting fish batches ('lots'), and the adoption of electronic methods for transmitting traceability data.
• The proposal lacks a clear definition of 'traceability' from a fisheries control perspective, which the document argues creates confusion for users regarding the information needed to verify product legality.
• There are significant loopholes in the traceability requirements for imported seafood products via the catch certificate, specifically the lack of mandatory requirements for the fishing method, the exact date and location of the catch, and the unique vessel identifier (IMO number) for vessels under 15 meters.
• The use of FAO fishing area codes on catch certificates for imported seafood is often too imprecise to pinpoint the specific jurisdiction or fishery, exemplified by FAO fishing area 71, which covers a vast region including Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Thailand.

APA

ClientEarth (n.d.). EU Fisheries Control System Factsheet. https://www.clientearth.org/media/demlb0gz/traceability-factsheet-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. EU Fisheries Control System Factsheet. n.d. https://www.clientearth.org/media/demlb0gz/traceability-factsheet-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=EU Fisheries Control System Factsheet |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/demlb0gz/traceability-factsheet-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearthndfisheries, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{EU Fisheries Control System Factsheet}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/demlb0gz/traceability-factsheet-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }