The trawler Nova Meda arrives at the port of Palamós carrying approximately 20 kilos of red shrimp. It is the star delicacy on the menus of restaurants in this fishing town on the Costa Brava, where in summer you hear almost more French than Catalan or Spanish. This shrimp is also an environmental badge of honour that Palamós has earned since eight years ago it devised a management plan to restore the size of this crustacean’s populations. The strategy worked, and the town has now become an example for other fishing communities.

At the helm of the Nova Meda is Josep Antoni Cruz, an atypical fisherman. First, because of his age. At 35, he brings down the average age of the local fishers’ guild. This naval engineer decided to pursue a master’s degree in fisheries management and follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfathers, going against one of the phenomena that most worries the sector: the lack of generational renewal. “We are the fifth generation of fishermen,” he says, including in that “we” his brother Carles, who works with him on the boat.

But what stands out most, at least at present, is his fight against a deeply entrenched dynamic in trawl fishing – a logic that some have tried to escape and encountered barriers in doing so: the widespread trickery involving engines in the Spanish fleet. Fishers generally acknowledge it openly. Their vessels carry engines with more power than what is certified and officially registered. Sometimes the real horsepower is double or triple that stated on the license. That was the case with the Cruz family’s previous boat: “We had another much larger boat, with more than 1000 horsepower, even though the license said 500,” he explains.

The Nova Meda, the boat he now operates, was the first in the town to comply with the regulations approved by Palamós fishers themselves to improve the condition of fishing grounds. Among the proposed measures, the management plan includes reducing engine power to 500 horsepower or less.

Although sailing with a more powerful engine than permitted is considered a serious offence, in practice, fishers complain that there is insufficient oversight by the authorities to ensure that the power on paper matches the real power. The main problem is that if only a few boats respect the legal limits, they are at a disadvantage because they cannot compete with others that have much more power and can therefore carry more weight, travel faster in the same amount of time (since trawling regulations allow a limited number of days at sea), and ultimately extract more fish from the sea.

“Everything here started in the 1980s. In our line of work, it’s very important to be the first to reach the fishing grounds. Whoever arrives first chooses where to fish, and the rest adapt. Toward the end of the last century, some began replacing their engines with more powerful ones, and the others followed so as not to fall behind. With more engine power, you could use larger nets, go further, and exploit areas that hadn’t been fished before,” explains Gerard Figueres, owner of the vessel La Perla de Palamós.

Ignacio Fresco, a fisheries policy specialist at Oceana, points out that this shift toward more powerful engines was also encouraged by subsidies at the time. “Fuel was subsidised, so having a more powerful engine wasn’t a problem,” he argues.

Distorting numbers

Figueres, who is also 35, has followed a path similar to Cruz’s. He graduated in nautical engineering and later studied the same master’s degree in fisheries management. He now continues the family business. Like Cruz, he has limited his boat’s power, mainly to combat the overexploitation of fishing grounds that earlier generations in his family had already observed. La Perla de Palamós is one of the few bottom trawlers in the Mediterranean operating legally. Its engine has 500 horsepower both in reality and on paper (499.9 according to the registry).

Although both see that the measures implemented to give ecosystems time to regenerate are gradually working – such as using trawl doors that reduce seabed destruction, increasing mesh size to avoid catching juvenile fish, or extending fishing bans – they believe they are still very far from the catch levels achieved by their fathers and grandfathers.

Above all, they highlight the importance of controlling engine power, especially as an alternative to highly controversial measures in the sector, such as the European Commission’s proposal to cut Mediterranean trawling days by 79 per cent in 2025. (Eventually, EU fisheries ministers settled on 50 per cent for Spain and France.) “Just by controlling engine power, fishing effort would be reduced to a minimum. If everyone used what’s on their fishing license, we might not even need to manage fishing by days,” Cruz notes.

He led by example, aligning the real engine power with the registered one. He had his old boat scrapped, paid for the dismantling, and used part of the horsepower capacity he had removed from the sea to regularise his new boat. The family spent 25,000 euros.

Beyond the cost, vessel owners encounter resistance from engine manufacturers. Cruz’s experience matches that of all the fishers interviewed for this investigation. “We changed the engine seven years ago, and they falsified the technical data sheets. On the license, we had 370 horsepower, and they installed an engine that claimed to be 370 horsepower, not 500. Even the emissions certificate was falsified – everything. When we went to buy it, we asked them not to do it, but they did it anyway. They’re used to working like this,” Cruz explains.

“At another supplier, which sells engines of seven or eight different brands, we asked for a 500-horsepower engine, and they told us they would install a 700-horsepower one. We insisted that we wanted 500. But they pushed hard, because they make more money selling one of 700. They tell you that you’ll catch more fish,” he adds.

In the Mediterranean, a recent Oceana report found that of 50 trawl and purse seine vessels analysed, 94 per cent exceeded their authorised and certified engine power, and 20 per cent exceeded the legal limits. This, the organisation observes, “completely distorts the calculation of fishing effort, the main management tool in the Mediterranean.”

Horsepower race

Asked about the number of sanctions imposed on vessels with more power than registered, the Directorate General of the Merchant Marine of the Spanish Ministry of Transport argues that it is unable to provide the data: “Operating with an engine more powerful than registered is a serious offence involving multiple administrations. Within maritime administration, this type of infringement affects various applicable regulations – such as marine pollution prevention, certifications, and so on – so there are no precise data on the sanctioning proceedings that have been processed.”

On the other hand, it is difficult to verify a vessel’s real power with data, since registries only reflect officially certified power. But vessel owners themselves acknowledge it. “People assume that the more you fish, the more money you make; that’s the mistake previous generations made, and it’s one we’re still making,” says fisherman Xavier Miró, already moored but still aboard his vessel, the Estrella del Sur. Like other cases in this fishing town, he is concerned about power fraud but has not yet been able to regularise the situation of his trawler, mainly because it is very expensive.

It is difficult to verify a vessel’s real power with data, since registries only reflect officially certified power.

Beyond Cruz or Figueres, asking vessel owners about engine power means assuming the answer will be twofold: the certified power and the real one. The Estrella del Sur has 427.9 horsepower registered. In reality, it has 700, Miró says. In any case, he claims to work at much lower power than his engine can deliver. “I operate at 550 horsepower.” He does so partly to reduce fuel consumption. “And I’m working towards regularisation,” he adds.

His boat has a German MAN engine. “Before, it had a [Spanish] Guascor with 420 horsepower. But then boats started arriving with 1400, 1500 horsepower, and of course, I said, with 400 I can’t compete; I’m going to change the engine and install a 500. That was my first idea. But then you talk to the engine supplier, and they tell you a 500 costs 12 million pesetas, and a 700 costs 13 million. I did the math and saw that I’d spend roughly the same on fuel and have almost 300 more horsepower.”

“In principle, I’ve bought the horsepower to reach 500, which used to be the legal maximum. The problem is that now they’ve pulled a trick and allowed it to go up to 900.” He is referring to Royal Decree 502/2022, by which the Spanish government raised the power limit for trawlers to 665 kW, equivalent to 904 horsepower – a measure questioned both by fishers fighting power abuse and by conservation organisations such as Oceana, which has long focused on engine fraud in fishing. At a time when the EU was advocating for reducing fishing effort to reverse the overexploitation of fishing grounds, this measure seemed to go in the opposite direction.

Thanks to the decree, Miró could legally register his vessel at 700 horsepower. But increasing from 427.9 to 700 would cost money: Miró would have to buy that difference either from the state or from other private owners (who can sell their horsepower quota on the market if they remove capacity from their fleet, either by scrapping or exporting their boats). This happens because the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy sets a maximum fishing capacity for each member state. Spain has a total of 964,826 kW (1,311,796 horsepower). Thus, if all vessels wanted to buy horsepower to regularise their situation, experts suggest there would not be enough available to do so.

Now, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food says that a new amendment to the 2022 regulation will allow owners of vessels permanently decommissioned since 2018 – who, for various reasons, could not contribute their capacity – to do so. “This [extra] capacity could be used to regularise engine power,” the Fisheries Secretariat explains.

Tampering and manipulating

According to the Spanish Merchant Marine, the trickery also occurs during engine certification. Six companies are authorised to operate in Spain: Bureau Veritas (BV), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Lloyd’s Register (LR), Registro Italiano Navale (RINA), Korean Register (KR), and China Classification Society (CCS).

“These organisations are directly called by manufacturers, distributors, workshops, or test benches to witness engine power certification tests. During these tests, engines are sealed at the maximum authorised power to prevent it from being exceeded, and the corresponding certificate is issued,” the Merchant Marine explains. “The problem lies in the fact that “on occasion, the initial documentation submitted by manufacturers or distributors has been manipulated to adapt it to the requirements of the fishing sector, as well as in the subsequent tampering with seals by the interested parties.”

In turn, certification bodies and engine manufacturers point the finger at vessel owners. The manufacturer Cummins claims to comply with legislation in all countries where it operates and states that “the responsibility for ensuring that a vessel’s operating license is accurate and up to date lies with the vessel owner.” “If a vessel owner carries out engine calibrations for operational purposes – such as changes in vessel weight due to additional equipment – the owner is responsible for complying with local legislation and updating licenses as necessary,” argues the company, which manufactures a widely used trawling engine.

We asked and followed up with representatives of other engine manufacturers, as well as all certification bodies authorised to operate in Spain. Of the latter, only the Norwegian DNV responded. “DNV certifies engines in accordance with recognised industry standards, regulations, and requirements. The scope of certification does not cover equipment operation, which is the operator’s responsibility,” a spokesperson says.

A European problem

Manipulation does not occur only in Spain but throughout Europe. In the absence of official data, interviews with experts in regulation and the fishing sector at the EU level indicate that hundreds or even thousands of vessels across the EU may be operating with manipulated engines or falsified documentation. “It’s comparable to modifying a car engine. But it’s also harder to detect, because you can’t see it from the outside,” says Steven Roos, an engineer at the Dutch certification company RDA Shiptech and an expert in technical inspections in Europe.

Manipulation does not occur only in Spain but throughout Europe. Hundreds or even thousands of vessels across the EU may be operating with manipulated engines or falsified documentation.

In 2017, the EU Court of Auditors raised the alarm, followed by the European Commission in its own report. In Spain, random checks revealed that the engine power limit was exceeded in one out of every two vessels. Data on power, length, vessel size, and catch volumes reported to the EU were also extremely inaccurate in France, Italy, and Scotland.

In the Netherlands, the Commission found that all vessels inspected with incorrect engine power had been certified by the same agency, whose name was not disclosed in the public report. Apparently, engineers from that same certification body also replaced seals on critical engine components after certification. In Ireland, the Commission observed that authorities apparently informed vessel operators in advance about unannounced inspections planned by the EU. In Greece, according to the report, authorities blocked inspections.

The example of Denmark also shows that fraud involving engine power is not an isolated case, its the opposite. Authorities identified serious enforcement failures around engine-power rules.

In 2024 Danish Court of Audits launched its investigation in April 2024 after clear that a number of mussel fishing boats in Limfjord in the north of the country were operating with illegally large engines despite the knowledge of the Fishiers Agency – yet no sanctions were applied.

But that’s not all. The Agency suspended engine-power controls in late 2022 and did not restart them in 2023 despite an internal recommendation. Additionally it gave the ministry factually incorrect information — and Parliament’s Environment and Food Committee was briefed with that incorrect information in two cases.

“It’s been a farce for 20 years, because there are boats with engines that, on paper, are so small that it’s completely impossible for anyone with even minimal fishing knowledge to believe that it could work,” explains David Lang, director of the Danish Small-Scale and Low-Impact Fishers’ Association and Producer Organisation.

Small-scale fishers around Lang have been drawing attention to the problem for years and have since faced serious hostility and threats. The European Commission has acknowledged that existing rules do not work. As a result, a revision of the EU Fisheries Control Regulation entered into force in 2024, aiming to strengthen sustainability in the sector. Governments have agreed that from 2028 onward, high-risk vessels in particular will be subject to closer monitoring, with onboard measurement systems that record engine power 24 hours a day. High-risk vessels include those using bottom trawls, as well as those primarily fishing plaice and sole in the North Sea, in especially sensitive but fish-rich areas known as the “Plaice Box.”

Steven Roos of RDA Shiptech is more concerned about the technical feasibility of this measure, as there are vessels in current fleets for which installing such monitoring systems is simply not viable. As a result, digital control would mainly affect new vessels. He nevertheless believes it could be a very effective measure if applied correctly. So far, however, this has been an obstacle in nearly all EU member states.

“The sea is finished”

There is a phrase Rogelio Santos hears more and more often in his fishing community in the Rías Baixas, on the southwestern coast of Galicia. Four words that sound like a verdict: “The sea is finished.”

This fisherman combines small-scale fishing with outreach work to reduce fishing capacity and preserve marine biodiversity. The problem with engine fraud is that it directly affects small operators like him. Santos speaks cautiously and avoids confrontation with those who work in other kinds of fishing generally considered more aggressive toward the marine environment, such as trawling.

Of his 48 years, he has devoted 30 to the sea. His father, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers were all fishermen. “I’m at least the fourth generation,” he says in a restaurant in Porto do Son, in the Galician province of A Coruña. “These last two or three years have been the worst in our history, with the almost total disappearance of cockles and clams from all the Galician Rías, and mussels under threat as well – basically all bivalve molluscs.”

Santos identifies a combination of causes: years of pollution, the effects of climate change, and partly fishing overcapacity. “What’s sad is that many times there’s a set of rules on paper and a very different reality in the sector, where some people ignore the rules. And engine power is one of them.”

This investigation was carried out with the support of Journalismfund Europe.