EU CATCH Rules Changes Risk Cutting Off EU from Alaska Seafood 

This page will be updated as new information comes available.

Issue 

As currently implemented, the EU CATCH system imposes data and reporting requirements that are nearly impossible for many of Alaska’s fisheries, creating a near-ban on many Alaska seafood exports to the EU.

Request

The U.S. and EU seafood industry respectfully request Alaska businesses contact their European customers and share how updated EU CATCH documentation requirements will affect their ability to export Alaska seafood products to Europe. Alaska businesses are asked to encourage their European partners to share concerns and ask for more time and/or alternative compliance, to the contacts listed below.

Additionally, the U.S. and EU seafood industry respectfully request that all European importers contact Ms. Katarina Sipic ([email protected]) of Seafood Europe, Mr. Costas Kadis ([email protected]), EU Fisheries and Oceans Commissioner, European Commission, and ministers/administrations of your respective member states to share your concerns and request they:

1) Extend the current grace period beyond July 10, 2026, to allow for meaningful system adjustments;

2) Develop alternative compliance, such as allowing aggregation to the processing facility level, for highly regulated fisheries with fully accounted catches.

The Alaska seafood industry and NOAA are committed to finding workable solutions and system adjustments to meet these requirements, but more time is needed.

“We are observing instances where imports from highly regulated US fisheries, which carry essentially a zero-percent IUU risk, are facing unintended administrative blockages due to document constraints.” – Guus Pastoor, President of Seafood Europe.

Issue Summary

The EU’s new digital CATCH certification system introduces harvest vessel traceability requirements that are incompatible with Alaska fisheries, where catches are routinely aggregated across vessels and tenders to maintain quality and efficiency. Some shipments would require several thousand data entries, imposing prohibitive costs on exporters and importers alike. Without modifications, these requirements risk halting a substantial portion of US seafood exports to the EU—despite Alaska fisheries being among the best- managed and transparent in the world.

Issue Impacts

In January, the EU-issued new catch certificate requirements for import of products from wild capture fisheries into the EU, to prevent import of Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) products.  Alaska’s unique fishery operations were not considered in the development of the new digital EU CATCH system; as a result, the EU CATCH system effectively creates a trade barrier equivalent to a ban on much of Alaska’s seafood entering the EU. These issues arise despite full catch accounting and oversight of Alaska fishery harvests.

The primary issue is the requirement for each imported shipment to provide traceability of each harvest vessel’s  contribution to each product by weight (including vessel identifier and date of landing). To make Alaska’s products high quality and competitive, Alaska has adopted several operational practices that aggregate and disaggregate catches from a number of vessels, particularly in small vessel (under 30m) fisheries, that make the proposed traceability requirements infeasible.

• • In many Alaska fisheries, catches are consolidated on tenders for delivery to the plant. In some cases, over 100 vessels will contribute to a single tender. Partial loads can be consolidated among tenders to ensure timely delivery and product quality.
  • To ensure the greatest yield, ancillary products (e.g., roe, milt, bellies, collars, etc.) are also produced. Tracing these products back through the delivery stream to specify each harvest vessel’s contribution is nearly an impossible task, and the operational, labor, and data entry would make those products uneconomic.
  • Products are often sold to secondary processors in non-EU countries (including the US) that are uncertain of the final market for their production. To maximize value, any secondary processor will need the option of selling its production to an EU final market. Consequently, all sales that are not to final markets need to comply with the EU traceability requirements to remain competitive in the market.

In one real-world example, a single representative shipment would have required approximately 3,000 individual product records, each tied to a specific vessel. Even when aggregated to the tender level, the shipment would still require several hundred records, each requiring separate certification and manual data entry into the EU system. This level of reporting transforms a single shipment into what is effectively a full supply chain audit, creating costs that exceed the commercial value of the product.

Several secondary, largely technical issues arise in compliance with new requirements, such as a requirement for a captain’s signature for each vessel that contributed product to a shipment. NOAA Fisheries is working to address these technical issues, however, that will not fix the issues vessel-level traceability of all shipments entering the EU creates.

Without more time for system adjustments and alternative compliance, increased costs will block Alaska products from the EU market.

For more information, please see a detailed situation report at https://www.alaskaseafood.org/wp-content/uploads/Situation-Report-EU-CATCH-04.20.26.pdf.

References & General Resources

FAQs: What is New in the EU CATCH Certification Scheme After the Amendment of the EU IUU Regulation and of the EU IUU Implementing Regulation (webpage)

NOAA Fisheries Update on EU Catch Certificate Requirements (webpage)

EU Catch Certificate and Re-Export Certificate Template (webpage)

European Commission webpage on illegal fishing (webpage)

NOAA Fisheries European Union Certification Requirements (webpage)

Social Responsibility Onboard Commercial Fishing Vessels in Alaska (webpage)

Map of Alaska overlaid onto Europe (webpage)