Fisheries minister Kristján Þór Júlíusson ensured that his intention is not to implement an all-knowing surveillance system. (Photo: Norden.org)

Proposal of drone fishing surveillance raises strong controversy

ICELAND
Saturday, August 18, 2018, 01:40 (GMT + 9)

A strong controversy has been generated in Iceland by a bill proposing drone surveillance to monitor Iceland’s fishing fleet to counteract the practice of discarding catch as well as weighing fraud.

The controversial bill was presented by Minister of Fisheries Kristján Þór Júlíusson, who put forth the bill covering all fishing ports, weighing license holders, and vessels engaged in commercial fishing, RÚV reported.

The bill also contemplates the installation of camera surveillance on all fishing vessels to monitor the fishing and processing of catches. In addition, the Directorate of Fisheries would operate a fleet of remote-controlled aircraft to monitor all activities in the industry and its Staff would have electronic access to the camera system.

“There is no doubt that if these plans are implemented they will be a model for other supervisory authorities and within a few years Icelanders could be living in a surveillance society of an unprecedented kind which has until now only existed in novels and films,” claimed the SA Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise in a statement opposing the bill.

The Minister responded to the statement, called The All-Seeing Eye of the State?, saying he had “no intentions” of creating an all-seeing surveillance system as described by SA, Reykjavík Grapevine reported.

“I can second what SA is saying, that this isn’t ideal. I have no plans on building up surveillance in such a way that a government institution becomes an all-seeing eye that’s being described. That is not my intention, far from it,” stressed Fisheries head.

Júlíusson recalled that camera surveillance is already practised in the fishing industry, and criticised the confederation for not proposing alternative measures to address the existing shortcomings in oversight.

However, SA’s CEO, Halldór Benjamínsson, highlights that the use of cameras and a fleet of drones is aimed to achieve an all-knowing surveillance of individuals and their work onboard all fishing vessels, in all harbours, transport equipment, fish processing plants. 

In his opinion, this would set a precedent in other segments of society, creating the risk of transforming Iceland into “an unprecedented surveillance society,” previously known only in science fiction.

From SA, it has been pointed out that history has shown that increasing monitoring in one sector creates a similar demand in another. There is also mention of the sky-high costs likely to result from such monitoring.

SA believes that alleged violations of laws in the sector should not result in everyone being viewed as suspicious and the assumption that workers break the law while doing their work.

The bill in question is still in draft form, meaning that there may be several revisions still before it hits the floor of parliament for a vote.

 
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media

Print