Six fishing vessels were detained in Irish waters last year, according to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA).
Publishing its annual report for 2025, the SFPA says there were 47,882 landings from fishing vessels into Irish ports during the year.
Its officers undertook 2,298 physical inspections, resulting in 78 sea-fisheries law enforcement case files being opened and nine points cases being submitted to the Points Determination Panel. As Afloat recently reported, a Waterford skipper was fined over fishing logbook offences following an SFPA investigation.
The SFPA carried out a total of six vessel detentions last year, working with its joint enforcement partners, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and the Naval Service. As previously reported by Afloat, EFCA inspectors detained a French-registered fishing vessel and escorted it into Castletownbere in May 2025.
“Protecting seafood safety is crucial, not only to the reputation of Ireland’s seafood offering both at home and abroad, but ultimately for the health and well-being of consumers of Irish seafood products,” the authority says.
In 2025, the SFPA promoted and oversaw compliance with relevant food safety legislation in 2,288 food businesses. A total of 2,719 food safety controls were carried out. The authority's seafood safety work also includes classification of commercial shellfish production areas, as Afloat reported in September.
Of these official controls, 742 were inspections of establishments handling and processing fishery products, vessels and transport vehicles; 1,733 consisted of official control checks, such as checks before certifying a consignment of food for export to a third country, temperature checks and labelling checks; and 244 verification activities included food incidents and complaints and inspections of fish quality.
Seafood safety law enforcement measures range from informal advisory measures to the service of compliance notices, as well as the commencement of criminal prosecutions for serious non-compliance.
In 2025, eight compliance notices, one improvement notice, one improvement order application, one prohibition order and 10 fixed payment notices were issued under food safety and animal by-product legislation.
The SFPA says it enabled the export of consignments of seafood totalling 88,809 tonnes to countries outside the EU, including Britain, through the provision of Export Health Certification. As Afloat reported in October, the authority confirmed that seafood exports were unaffected by a 24-hour staff stoppage.
During 2025, the authority processed 1,385 export health certificates for Irish consignments destined for Britain. Exports to Britain totalled 4,738 tonnes.
