Las Palmas: Port of Convenience and Gateway to Europe

All fishing vessels must at some point visit a port to land their catch, refuel and take on provisions, and IUU vessels are no exception. Regulating access to port facilities states can therefore be a highly effective way of controlling IUU fishing. However, certain ports fail to do so and the existence of such "Ports of Convenience" is seen as one of the major reasons that IUU fishing continues to occur.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a major Port of Convenience, providing services to IUU fleets operating off the coast of West Africa, and hosting a number of companies that operate IUU vessels. It also serves as a gateway through which illegally caught fish can enter onto the huge EU market: from Las Palmas it can be transported anywhere within the EU with virtually no further inspection as to its origin.

Between 18-21 May 2005, EJF investigators identified a number of vessels in Las Palmas that have a history of illegal fishing (or are alleged to have illegally fished) in the waters of Guinea and Sierra Leone, providing a snapshot of the importance of the port to servicing pirate vessels. Four of the vessels arrested by the Guinean authorities in the first half of 2005 have also been documented using Las Palmas during 2004-2005.

The problems in Las Palmas are well known to relevant authorities but, so far, little has been done to take corrective action, despite the fact the European Member States, explicitly including Spain, along with the European Commission have repeatedly declared their commitment to fight IUU fishing, including through port control measures.

According to the European Commission, Las Palmas has at best four inspectors, but at the moment (as of December 2005) probably only two or three - which is far too few to control efficiently the 400,000 tonnes of fish passing through the port annually. This clearly demonstrates the lack of political will to translate commitments into concrete measures.

EJF and Greenpeace are calling on the European Union and Spain to take urgent, specific action to prevent IUU fishing and transport vessels from using Las Palmas, and stop illegally caught fish from entering the EU market through this port.