Environmentalists in Greenpeace say that the government has fallen asleep in the efforts to stop illegal fishing in the Barents Sea. The Norwegian minister of fisheries and coastal affairs had a good start when she established a black list of trawlers doing illegal fishing in the Barents Sea. However, since then little has been done, Truls Gulowsen in Greenpeace argues.
The Russian trawler Nemansky has been strapped to a quay in northern Norway for 11 months, but the ship is still present on the government’s black list of trawlers seen as a danger to the Barents Sea fish stock management.
– The fight against illegal fishing has been a huge success, but now the focus is weakening, says Gulowsen to NRK.
The Norwegian Coast Guard does not agree with the Greenpeace description of the situation. Steve Olsen in KV North says to NRK that the fight against illegal fishing has been successful, and that no irregularities on trawlers have been observed the last year. With the worst ships in arrest, the Directorate of Fisheries believes that there is no need to blacklist any more of the trawlers.
Greenpeace on the other hand, says that the government’s reduced intensity against illegal trawlers probably will open up for other and more sophisticated forms of illegal fishing.
