Fiskarlaget 2021
The cases concerned a total of six cases with fishermen who received fines after they delivered catches of industrial fish in Denmark in 2017. Most delivered their catches in Hanstholm.
The cases arose because the amount of fish at inspection did not match what was stated in the catch certificate.
It turned out that there were other amounts of other horse mackerel, blue whiting, herring and mackerel than what was stated.
The fishing association’s lawyer Bjørn Kvello says that in a couple of cases the right authority in Denmark was contacted and explained that fishermen could not be blamed for the discrepancy that had arisen.
– We stated that the samples taken from the catch were not representative and thus gave incorrect results. The Danish authorities have complied with this and we are very pleased that we have been upheld, says Kvello.
Well, all the other cases have also been processed by the police in Denmark.
Lawyer Bjørn Kvello in the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association needed assistance from a Danish colleague in the current case, but is satisfied to have had a good overall impact for our members.
– On behalf of the fishermen, we hired a Danish lawyer to assist them after fines had been issued to everyone. In total, fines of 755,000 kroner were given for what we in the Norwegian fisheries administration call an error estimate – ie that you have not been able to calculate how many of the different fish species have on delivery, Bjørn Kvello explains.
The result after the work on the six cases is that one was fined 147,000 kroner, while the others have accepted smaller fines of 11,800 and down to 3,000.
The fines were as follows:
Fisker A Kr. 195,000 fined NOK 11,600
Fisker B NOK 71,200 «NOK 4,500
Fisker C DKK 75,300 «DKK 3,000
Fisker D DKK 143,500 «« DKK 11,800
Fisker E DKK 147,000 «DKK 0
Fisker F DKK 123,700 «DKK 10,900
Bjørn Kvello points out that the case shows that it was right not to accept the original fines.
– This also shows the usefulness of having a member organization in the background who can give advice, in this case about engaging assistance from a lawyer in Denmark, Bjørn Kvello concludes.