Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 13 October 2021.
As the Minister will be aware, despite every effort to stop and prevent illegal fishing, some people are still determined to break the law and illegally overharvest our seas for their commercial gain. This, unfortunately, has a huge knock-on effect, with fish stocks being depleted, the livelihoods of law-abiding fishermen being affected, and the placement of endangered fish species into more perilous population decline. As many in this Chamber will know, Brexit has led to more than just heated words regarding the fishing of European countries in British territorial waters, and a current issue that is emerging is that fishing vessels are switching off their automatic identification systems and long-range identification tracking devices in order to fish in waters undetected. I have little doubt that Welsh waters are likely to be targeted by this behaviour, so could the Minister make a statement about what conversations they and their colleagues have had with the UK Government regarding this practice, and what measures are they able to take to prevent it?