Opinion: The EU needs to tighten sanctions against Russian fishing vessels

The Honorary Consul of Ukraine in the Kingdom of the Netherlands believes that the West should tighten sanctions against the Russian fishing industry, in particular, due to the possibility of Russia spying using its fishing vessels.

As Consul Burger Dirven told Ukrinform, Russia earns up to 7 billion euros a year from fish sales, and 1.5 of these 7 billion are earned through the Netherlands.

Dirven also emphasized that the sanctions are working, but some important sectors of Russian industry have not yet felt the impact.

“Russian vessels have already been denied access to the ports of Velsen, near Amsterdam, due to espionage activities of Russian fishing vessels. Therefore, now the Russian company Norebo is using a Norwegian company with vessels under the Norwegian flag to deceive the Dutch authorities. The fishing vessels that transport fish from Murmansk to Velsen for the Norebo company use Norwegian vessels, but with Russian crews,” Dirven said.

According to Dirven, Russian fishing vessels also catch fish that ignore European fishing quotas and also catch fish that are too small.

“Since this fish is delivered to the Dutch port of Velsen, where EU regulations apply, the Dutch authorities can apply European law, but this is not actually happening. In addition, it turned out that the documentation for the caught fish is in most cases done improperly. So the Dutch authorities must apply EU law,” Dirven stressed.