Judge said the power to require a monitored weighing on landing was not a new power
Killybegs harbour. The judge said the SFA was entitled to require that any quantity of landed fish be weighed in the presence of officials before being transported. Photograph: Marka/Universal Images Group via GettyThe High Court has found the sea fisheries watchdog was entitled to insist that the weighing of fish catches in Killybegs, Co Donegal, should take place “on landing” and not after they had been transported to a processing factory.
Fish are weighed to ensure compliance with the EU Common Fisheries Policy but Ireland had a derogation since 2012 which permitted weighing at an authorised premises after the fish was transported from the quayside. The derogation was rescinded in 2021.
As a result, the SFA announced that a percentage of inspections would be carried out on landing which would involve weighing the catch at the pier side weighbridge in Killybegs and other designated ports for landings of more than 10 tonnes of fish, before transport to the factory. Fishermen had argued that post-transport weighing was the best way to preserve the quality, freshness and value of the fish. It minimised the damage caused by crushing/bruising or temperature variation because the catch remained in refrigerated water for transport to the factory where dewatering, sorting and weighing would occur.
The figures sent in when the fish was later weighed in the factory showed a differential of some 11 to 12 per cent between the weight for mackerel recorded from the pier weighbridge and on the flow scales at the factory. The fishermen/factory applicants argued the Atlantic Challenge was unlawfully selected for monitored weighing on landing as at that time weighing ought properly to have occurred at the factory premises under the terms of the derogation.