Review of Sea Fisheries Control in Ireland Ireland

Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources - Project Dates:
December 2006 - May 2007

Description of Project:

This study evaluated the current MCS strategy in Ireland identifying control inefficiencies along with legal and IT strengthening requirements. The 7 man Poseidon consulting team focused on improvements to targeting actions, the balance between resource deployment options (land and sea based deployments complimented by IT & VMS), the development of Standing operating Procedures and Codes of Conduct) and required legal support measures. The work also included a methodology to constantly review the outputs of the MCS actions, and development of MoUs between contracting parties.

Services Provided:
Poseidon provided a team of operational MCS, fisheries economics, legal and judicial, IT and institutional / HR specialists to conduct a thorough review of monitoring, control and surveillance of fisheries effort in Ireland. The team produced substantial recommendations covering strategy development and risk analysis, a revised deployment approach as well as assisting with the institutional structuring of the new Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA). Specific areas covered included:

Rectifying operational inefficiencies

Benchmarking inspection targets at sea and on land

Categorising offence types and recommending appropriate intervention actions

Defining standard operating procedures for land, sea and transport inspections

Evaluating problems in the use of IT and identifying the required changes that would optimise offence detection through cross checks

Re-evaluating human resource issues and setting up an appropriate management structure

Laying down appropriate monitoring and evaluations systems