Satellite monitoring of fishing vessels fitted with "black boxes" is to be initiated by the Naval Service next year. The new control system will apply to vessels over 24 metres in length, under a Europe-wide scheme.
The scheme, intended to become standard within the European "pond" on January 1st, is running late in several countries due to standardisation problems. Racal, which has sold its tracking system to several other member-states, has been signed up to supply the system here under a Naval Service/Department of Defence contract.
Issuing its annual statistics this week, the Naval Service reported a total of £548,000 accrued to the Exchequer over the past year from fines imposed by the courts on fishing vessels detained in these waters. A number of cases are still outstanding.
Co-operation with Britain has increased significantly, and several Naval Service personnel will be called as witnesses in the British courts under a system which began with information exchanges between the two jurisdictions in 1995. This is focused mainly on the activity of a fleet of some 103 Spanish vessels registered as "flagships" in Britain and availing of the British quota off this coastline.
Over the past year, recorded sightings of fishing vessels in Irish waters fell slightly on 1998, while 31 arrests were made, the Naval Service reports. This compares with 27 detentions in 1998, 49 in 1997, 33 in 1996 and 51 in 1995. Some 928 boardings were made in 1995, compared with 1,307 in the past year; suggesting that fewer, selective and thorough boardings yield better results in terms of detentions.
Some 190 vessels were issued with written warnings or "yellow cards", while a total of 63 salmon fishery boardings were carried out in co-operation with the Central Fisheries Board.
In addition, the fleet was involved in 25 search-and-rescue operations at sea, and continued its offshore surveillance as part of its responsibility for drug interdiction. The highlight was the successful interception of the converted British-registered trawler, Posidonia, off the southwest coast on November 17th, when some £15.8 million worth of cannabis was seized.
The service's diving section was involved in 38 separate operations, over 98 days in total. This work ranged from explosive ordnance disposal of second World War mines and depth charges to body search and recovery to security for visiting British navy vessels and follow-up checks in relation to drug interdiction.
A spokesman has confirmed that eight of nine divers have lodged compensation claims with the Department of Defence as a result of injuries sustained during a helicopter/search-and-rescue demonstration at the Tall Ships festival in Dublin last year. As the incident involved both a civilian craft and military personnel, it was the subject of an Air Accident Investigation Unit inquiry which attached some blame to all parties involved.
