By its very nature, illegal fishing is clandestine and so it is extremely difficult to make an accurate estimate of the levels of illegal fishing activities.
Information on the number of successful prosecutions of offences discovered, and the number of official written warnings issued by the UK fisheries control authorities, in relation to vessels not complying with regulations regarding access to the 12 mile limit is set out in the following table.
Prosecutions Official written warnings 1997 2 2 1998 2 1 1999 3 1 2000 1 1 2001 3 1 2002 8 0 2003 9 1 2004 6 2 2005 2 5 2006 5 2 2007 2 0 2008 4 0 2009 0 2 Total 47 18 Source: Statistics supplied by the Marine and Fisheries Agency, Marine Scotland and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
All other successful prosecutions of fisheries offences and official written warnings issued, are not recorded in a way which specifies whether the offence took place within or outside of the 12 mile limit.
Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) enforce local fisheries bye-laws and some other fisheries regulations within the six mile limit of England and Wales. Information on successful prosecutions of fisheries offences by SFCs are not held by the Marine and Fisheries Agency.