The Agency’s mission is to monitor the Industry’s compliance with UK, EU and international fisheries law and regulations in ports and at sea within the 200 mile British Fishery Limits around Scotland, and beyond when required.  It does this through the effective deployment of its patrol vessels, surveillance aircraft and the sea fisheries inspectorate, and the presentation of cases of non-compliance to the Procurator Fiscal Service for prosecution.  In short, it aims first and foremost to deter illegal activity, but when deterrence fails, it works to detect breaches of the law.

The Agency’s area of responsibility extends over some 127,000 square miles of sea within British Fishery Limits, an area that equates to nearly one quarter of all EU waters.

It also covers activity around an extensive coastline which harbours numerous landing places on mainland Scotland and the islands, notably Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.

The over-arching instrument governing the management of fisheries is the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

The enforcement requirements of the CFP are governed by three principal regulations - Conservation, Quota and Control - which are enabled by the subordinate Statutory Instruments of these Acts.

The Conservation Regulation lays down technical measures for the conservation of fishery resources. They include the setting of minimum mesh sizes, prohibiting the use of certain devices, and closing areas to fishing operations.

Quota Regulations set quotas for individual stocks.

The Control Regulation sets out a recording system for monitoring conservation and fish stock management measures, as well as fishing effort.

Monitoring and enforcement priorities are determined by overall fisheries management objectives.

Today these are:

To preserve the integrity of the quota management system, the principal threat to which would come from the misreporting of catch areas, the mis-recording of species caught, the landing of fish clandestinely, and any related under-declaration on logsheets of quantities caught.

To enforce pelagic (herring and mackerel) fisheries regulations. This is a high priority function because of the current uncertain state of the herring stock.

To check compliance with Technical Conservation Regulations, which requires verification of the types of nets being used and the sizes of fish being caught and retained for landing.

To enforce the requirements of stock recovery programmes.

These priorities aim to uphold the credibility of the science that forms the basis for decisions taken by Ministers in Brussels each December about Total Allowable Catches and the allocation of quotas.

The Commission's authorities take a close interest in the effectiveness of the Agency in meeting its statutory EU monitoring and control obligations.

An important feature of its work, in terms of verifying the Industry's compliance, is reflected in the decreasing incidences of suspected and detected under-recording of landings by fishing vessels, as shown in the graphs below.

The quantities and species involved are variable.

The sharp downward trends since early 2005 reflect well on the Industry.

The Seafish Responsible Fishing Scheme is given full support by the Agency, whose authority is consulted when accreditation is being considered. The statistics on landings referred to above play a part in the process.

Further information on how the Agency conducts its operations and details of its Enforcement Code of Practice are available on its website

www.sfpa.gov.uk