VZCZCXRO0809
RR RUEHFL RUEHNP
DE RUEHRO #1387/01 3190730
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140730Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1165
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA NMFS SILVER SPRING MD
INFO RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN 9658
RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE 3297
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES 3454
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 4689
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 0546
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0419
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2462
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 1871
RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS 1873
RUEHVT/AMEMBASSY VALLETTA 0864

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ROME 001387 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/OMC - D. WARNER-KRAMER 
USDOC FOR NOAA/NMFS - L. CIMO 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EFIS SENV ETRD ICCAT IT
SUBJECT: ITALY/IUU FISHING: INFORMATION REQUESTED FOR PURPOSES OF 
THE HIGH SEAS DRIFTNET FISHING MORATORIUM PROTECTION ACT 
 
REFS: A) 10/31/08 PRESTON - WARNER-KRAMER E-MAIL 
B) 10/30/08 PRESTON-CIMO E-MAIL  C) STATE 104929 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  In response to USG request for information 
pertaining to the Driftnet Moratorium Protection Act, the Government 
of Italy (GOI) stresses additional measures that it has taken in 
2008 to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing by 
Italian fishing vessels.  Those measures include a ban on low-level 
flights in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea (to prevent the use of 
spotter planes); legal changes increasing the sanctions for 
fisheries violations and making the possession on board of 
illegal/unauthorized fishing equipment a violation; and a strong 
enforcement effort, in coordination with other European Union (EU) 
member states and the EU Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA). 
The GOI also provided additional information regarding its 
submission of data, through the EU, to the International Commission 
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and on the 
licensing, monitoring and control of fishing and support vessels. 
Finally, GOI authorities described their support for a one-year 
ICCAT moratorium on bluefin tuna fishing in 2009, and their plans to 
conduct a fleet reduction program in 2009 which they hope will 
result in a 30-percent reduction in the Italian purse seine fleet. 
End Summary. 
 
Fisheries DG, Coast Guard respond to U.S. questions 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (U) SCICouns transmitted ref c) points and questions regarding 
the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act to the 
Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forest Policies and to 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 7 October, 2009.  Marine 
Fisheries and Aquaculture Director General (DG) Francesco Abate 
responded to the questions in a letter dated 24 October, 2008. 
Following a 29 October meeting with DG Abate; Fisheries Director 
Plinio Conte; National Fisheries Control Center head (and Italian 
Coast Guard Commander) Oreste Pallotta; and Coast Guard Lieutenant 
Commander Fabio Rivalta, in which Post requested clarification of 
some points, DG Abate wrote a second letter on 5 November, 
containing additional information.  The information below is drawn 
from the two letters, from discussions in person, by telephone and 
e-mail with GOI officials, and from the Port Captaincy's Final 
Report of Italian participation in the European Union (EU) 2008 
Bluefin Tuna Fishing Monitoring Campaign in the Mediterranean.  A 
hard copy of the report, some of which is in English, will be mailed 
to Dr. Rebecca Lent (NMFS - Silver Spring).  The information below 
is organized to respond to ref c) questions, which also are 
included.  The Italian authorities expressed willingness to provide 
additional information, if needed by Washington agencies. 
 
Q and A: ICCAT Reporting 
------------------------ 
 
¶Q.  What steps has Italy taken to improve its data collection and 
reporting to ICCAT? 
 
¶3. (SBU) A.  Italy is represented at ICCAT by the European 
Commission (EC).  Since the European Union is the entity which is an 
ICCAT member, Italian catch data are sent to the EC for transmission 
to ICCAT.  In the case of bluefin tuna, pursuant to ICCAT 
recommendation 06-05, the Fisheries Directorate requires fishers 
(generally the ship-owners or fishers' associations) to report their 
catch data to the Directorate every five days by e-mail, mail or 
fax.  The Directorate, after minimal turn-around time to check the 
data and convert it to an electronic format, then sends the 
information by e-mail to the EC.  The more detailed fishing vessel 
log book data is collected by the port authorities, who then send it 
to the Fisheries Directorate.  The Fisheries Directorate combines 
that information with that regarding fixed tuna traps and sport 
fishing, and sends it to the EC on the fifteenth of every month (and 
sometimes more often) through the EU's FIDES Fishery Data Exchange 
System.  The GOI authorities were not aware that the EC had not 
submitted Italy's monthly and five-day catch data to ICCAT in a 
timely way, and could not offer an explanation as to why that might 
have happened.  They recommended that the USG seek more detail on 
that question from the EC.  They also noted that they are working on 
replacing paper record submission with electronic data submission, 
 
ROME 00001387  002 OF 004 
 
 
but that it is not a quick process. 
 
Q and A: Anti-driftnet enforcement 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶Q. Has any action been taken to address the alleged driftnet fishing 
activity described in various NGO reports? 
 
¶4. (SBU) A.  A significant portion of Italy's enforcement vessels, 
in the 2008 fishing season, were dedicated to the EU bluefin tuna 
Joint Deployment Plan described below.  However, Italy ensured that 
enforcement of other fishing regulations, including those regarding 
driftnets, also continued.  Over the course of the 2008 
anti-driftnet enforcement efforts, 429,725 meters of driftnets were 
seized by port authorities, the Coast Guard, and the Financial 
Police (Guardia di Finanza) in Catania, Messina, and Palermo (all in 
Sicily); Reggio Calabria; Naples; and Lazio (the region in which 
Rome is located).  Two changes supporting anti-driftnet enforcement 
efforts in 2008 were the toughening of sanctions for illegal fishing 
and the inclusion of "possession on board of illegal/unauthorized 
fishing equipment" as a violation triggering sanctions (see para 11 
for more detail). 
 
¶5. (SBU) Regarding the case of Diomede II, mentioned in ref c) 
points:  Diomede II is authorized to use "ferrettara" nets, which 
have a smaller mesh size (180 millimeters) than the driftnets once 
used to catch swordfish and tuna ("spadare," in Italian).  The 
ferrettara nets also are deployed in a different way.  Under Italian 
regulations, ferrettara nets may not be longer than 2.5 kilometers 
and may not be used more than 10 miles from the coast.  Under EC 
regulation 1239/98, Annex VIII, ferrettara nets may not be used to 
set on swordfish or various tunas, including bluefin tuna; however, 
some by-catch of those species is allowed in the course of fishing 
for permitted species such as salpa and mackerel.  On May 8, the day 
following the sighting by Greenpeace mentioned in ref c), the 
Messina Coast Guard formally cited Diomede II for using 2.8 
kilometers of ferrettara net, instead of 2.5 kilometers.  This 
likely led to the seizure of nets and the imposition of a fine; the 
Italian authorities did not have the details at hand to confirm the 
exact penalty applied.  They commented that, while they were not 
familiar with the details of the Oceana report mentioned in ref c), 
it was likely that many of the vessels observed by the group were 
actually authorized to fish with ferrettara nets, and that the nets 
seen in the photographs were ferrettara nets, rather than driftnets 
(spadare). 
 
Q and A: Anti-spotter-plane enforcement 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶Q. Has any action been taken to address the alleged use of spotter 
planes by Italian vessels fishing for bluefin tuna? 
 
¶6. (SBU) A. Italy participated actively in the EU's 2008 Bluefin 
Tuna Joint Deployment Plan (JDP), which was coordinated by the 
Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) and involved joint action 
by accredited ICCAT inspectors and vessels from Italy, France, 
Spain, Greece, and Malta, for monitoring bluefin tuna (BFT) fishing. 
 Italy contributed more vessels than any other member state, and was 
the only member state to provide airplanes for aerial surveillance. 
The JDP included 210 aerial reconnaissance flights and 29 aerial 
inspections.  The Italian national plan included an additional 14 
aerial reconnaissance flights and 28 aerial inspections.  More data 
is available on pp. 18-19 of the Port Captaincy's JDP Final Report 
mentioned in para 2. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Because Italian regulations do not permit the prohibition 
of spotter plane flights unless the planes' illegal support to BFT 
fishing is proved, in 2008 the Coast Guard also worked directly with 
the institutions responsible for commercial flight control to obtain 
a specific advisory notice ("NOTAM") forbidding any private 
low-level flights in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea during intense 
periods of BFT fishing aerial surveillance.  This measure appears to 
be the only such provision in the Mediterranean area; in the 20 June 
2008 JDP Steering Group meeting, the CFCA urged other member states 
to adopt similar measures (see minutes included in the JDP Final 
Report).  The 2008 JDP and Italian national aerial campaigns led to 
 
ROME 00001387  003 OF 004 
 
 
the identification of six illegal spotter planes and the initiation 
of legal sanction procedures against them.  The court case against 
the U.S.-registered plane N-337SM, which was identified on 5 June 
2008 as having been used as a spotter plane for BFT fishing off of 
Sicily, also includes two associated fishing vessels (see Annex 
VI(2) of the June 20 JDP minutes). 
 
Q and A: Fleet monitoring, registration and licensing 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶Q. 1) What other steps has Italy taken to ensure effective 
monitoring and control of its fleet and support vessels, such as 
transshipment/carrier vessels?  2) Specifically, what are the 
requirements for fishing and support vessel registration and 
licensing and which part of the Italian government is responsible 
for these activities? 
 
¶8. (SBU) A. 1) In addition to the JDP and Italian national plans 
mentioned above, two Italian Coast Guard officials are working at 
the EU CFCA operations center in Brussels.  More than eighty Italian 
Coast Guard officials have been accredited as ICCAT inspectors, 
after receiving the required training from the CFCA, at Italy's 
National Research Council facility in Ancona, and at other seminars 
and roundtables in Reggio Calabria, Livorno, Naples, Ancona, etc. 
¶A. 2) The Fisheries Directorate is the GOI entity responsible for 
fishing licensing.  Regarding commercial fishing in general, the 
Italian law providing the basis for issuing fishing licenses is 
Agriculture Ministerial Decree 26 of July 1995.  (Post can e-mail 
Italian-language copies of this decree and other laws upon 
request.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) Regarding bluefin tuna (BFT) fishing authorization, the 
requirements for vessels to obtain the authorization are those 
provided for in ICCAT Recommendations and in current EU regulations. 
 Both BFT fishing vessels and BFT support vessels are included in a 
special list; updates to the list are transmitted continuously to 
ICCAT by the Fisheries Directorate.  There are just a small number 
of authorized BFT support vessels, which primarily transport food 
for tuna ranching pens.  However, many small vessels in Italy are 
authorized to transport sailors and goods in general. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The GOI authorities noted that the September 2008 World 
Wildlife Fund-commissioned report on Italy's BFT industry 
incorrectly includes many of these small transport vessels on lists 
of BFT fishing/support vessels.  They also noted that the vessel 
"Luca Maria" which Greenpeace observed in 2007 in the area of BFT 
fishing grounds (mentioned in ref c)), was authorized only for 
transport, and not for fishing or BFT ranching support.  After the 
Greenpeace sighting, it was inspected, but no nets were found on 
board.  Since it was appropriately registered as a transport vessel, 
on the small vessels registry of the Port Captaincy/Coast Guard 
office in Cetara (south of Naples), and there was no evidence of 
fishing activity, it apparently was not sanctioned.  (Transport 
vessels are not required to carry "blue box" transponders on board.) 
 The Luca Maria is currently not even authorized to transport goods; 
it is registered for only "personal use." 
 
Q and A: Legal basis for sanctions and enforcement 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶Q. What punitive actions can Italy take against its vessels that are 
found to be operating illegally?  What law or laws provide the basis 
for monitoring, control and enforcement of the Italian fishing fleet 
and support vessels? 
 
¶11. (SBU) A. The legislation providing the legal basis for Italian 
fisheries monitoring, control and enforcement is Law 963/65, which 
was modified by Decree Laws 153 and 154/2004.  Those laws recently 
were modified by Law 101/2008 which, by converting into law the 
Decree Law 59/2008, doubled fines for fisheries violations, and 
added important additional sanctions.  Law 101/2008 also included, 
as violations of law, actions such as 1) the possession on board of 
fishing equipment that is "illegal, unauthorized, or not in 
conformance with the applicable regulations" and 2) violations of 
fishery recovery plans, including that for bluefin tuna. 
 
 
ROME 00001387  004 OF 004 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) The administrative sanctions imposed by Law 101/2008 for 
possession on board of illegal/unauthorized fishing equipment 
include fines of 1000-6000 euros; confiscation of the catch; 
confiscation and destruction of the illegal/unauthorized equipment 
(except for the fishing vessels themselves) at the cost of the 
violator; and, in cases of repeat offenders, the suspension of 
fishing licenses for 10-30 days.  The sanctions for violations of 
fishery recovery plans include fines of 2000-12,000 euros.  While 
most fisheries violations (lack of pre-notification, inadequate 
product traceability, lack of authorization) are punished with 
administrative sanctions such as those above, fishing for catch 
below minimum size limits is punished with penal sanctions. 
 
GOI support for ICCAT BFT moratorium, fleet reduction 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) Per refs a) and b), Fisheries DG Abate also said on 29 
October that he had just come back from Brussels, where the topic of 
discussion was what mandate to give the EU Commission regarding 
bluefin tuna for the 17-24 November ICCAT meeting in Marrakesh, 
Morocco.  He said that he had asked the EU to support closing the 
fishery to all countries for a year, noting "There is no point in 
the EU stopping, and other countries not stopping."  As a result of 
his intervention, he said, the Commission is now free to agree to a 
moratorium, as well as to reductions in quota or fishing days. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) DG Abate also said that his Ministry is about to announce 
a new program with strong incentives for fishermen to get out of the 
bluefin tuna purse seining business, in order to reduce 
overcapacity.  He noted that they are hoping for a 30% reduction in 
2009 alone.  The program is with Agriculture Minister Zaia for his 
signature now.  Agriculture Diplomatic Advisor Giorgio Starace said 
that he is pushing for it to be signed as soon as possible, but that 
it will not be easy to implement.  According to Coast Guard Comm. 
Pallotta, the program will be co-financed 50/50 by the European 
Union and by the Italian Treasury. 
 
Spogli