If you are looking to make a report regarding Salmon, Trout, Coarse Fisheries, Eels, Recreational Angling, Invasive Species or Water Pollution please contact Inland Fisheries Ireland on their Hotline: 0818 347 424 or www.fisheriesireland.ie

SFPA Confidential Reporting

Introduction:

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems and a significant cause of overfishing which undermines efforts to manage fisheries sustainably. It contributes to the collapse or decline of fisheries that are critical to local communities, economic sustainability and food systems which disadvantages law-abiding fishers, seafood producers and consumer trust.

What can I report?

Fisheries Control

Sea fishing related activities which you believe to be suspicious, illegal or potentially harmful to fish stocks. These may include but are not limited to:
•    Marine Licensing - Unregistered or unlicensed vessels, domestic or foreign.
•    Fisheries Control – Mis-recording of catches, under recording, fishing gear illegal mesh sizes or lack of selective gear, catch size distribution (high grading), discarding, selling directly to the public or via social media, crew/labour exploitation, illegal transportation of fishery products domestically or abroad.

Food Safety

If you have a concern regarding:
•    Suspected food poisoning from seafood.
•    Hygiene standards of a seafood business.
•    Venues or persons involved in unregistered processing/supply of seafood.
•    Labelling concerns regarding a fishery product you have purchased.

Food Fraud

Food Fraud is committed when food is intentionally placed on the market by businesses or individuals for the purpose of deceiving the consumer to gain undue advantage e.g. financial gain.
•    Mislabelling of food – false claims or distortion of the information on the label.
•    Substitution – Process of replacing a food or ingredient with one of lower value.
•    Sale of food that is potentially harmful due to unapproved enhancement, dilution, substitution or concealment of quality.

How can I make a report?

Phone, call our Confidential Line on 1800 76 76 76 (07.30h - 22.30h, 7 days per week)
Send us an email to confidential@sfpa.ie
Complete our online Confidential Reporting Form

What is Confidential Reporting?

•    You are not obliged to reveal your name or any personal details.
•    We will listen to any information you have regarding suspected illegal fishing or seafood safety concerns.  
•    Your call will not be recorded. We have no caller ID display, no 171 facility and do not trace calls.
•    We will support you through the reporting process and make sure your report contains no information that could identify you.
•    We do not make a note of gender, accents, apparent age, or ethnicity of any caller.
•    When you report via our online form, your computer details are not available to us.

The only person who knows you contacted us with information will be you.

What happens next when you make a report?

•    We will thoroughly research the information you provide to enable us to act upon it.
•    We will make sure the information is accurate and not given with purpose of malicious intent.
•    We will cross check the information supplied against other available intelligence to inform the process.

Why did nothing happen after I made a confidential report?

•    The information may be crucial to a larger investigation where action may take place later.
•    The information may need to be further analysed and corroborated before any appropriate action can be taken.

Consumer Advice

Consumer Advice on food safety and healthy eating is the role of Safefood which is an all-island body. They can be contacted through their website.