The Naval Service boarded and inspected twice as many Irish vessels than Spanish and French ones in Irish waters over the past year and Irish-registered vessels constituted over 75 per cent of all detentions.
However, the Naval Service says it has insufficient information on quotas given to non-Irish vessels - a situation which exposes further flaws in the EU's fisheries management system. Also, some seven of a total of 27 Irish-registered vessels detained were "flag of convenience" vessels, crewed by Spaniards .
A total of 1,950 vessels were boarded during the past year within the Irish exclusive economic zone, with 850 of these being Irish-registered - and 29 of those in turn were Spanish-crewed. Some 458 Spanish-registered vessels were boarded, 385 French, and 171 British-registered - including 93 "flag of convenience" Spanish-crewed ships registered in Britain. Other vessels boarded included Belgian (47), Dutch (10), German (8), Russian (8), Norwegian (4), Faeroese (4), Japanese (3) and Portuguese (2).
Seventy-four warnings were issued to Irish-registered vessels, including three "flagships", while 17 warnings were issued to French vessels, 12 to British (including five flagships), 11 to Spanish, two to Belgian and one warning each to a Portuguese and German-registered vessel respectively.
The 27 Irish-registered vessels detained were mainly off the west and south coasts, including seven flagships, while two of four detained British-registered vessels were flagships. Two French, one Spanish and one German vessel constituted the balance of a total of 35 detentions.
Naval Service personnel also carried out salmon fishing patrols and carried out more than 100 inspections. In total, ships were involved in 1,368 fishery patrol days - a 37 per cent increase since the re-organisation plan initiated in 1999.
A Naval Service spokesman said the level of activity among Spanish vessels in the former Irish Box was very low and never reached its limited figure of 40.
In a new development, satellite monitoring is to be extended this year to the bulk of European fishing vessels. This information is transmitted to the fisheries monitoring centres in the state of registry and the state where vessels are fishing.
