On 12th May 2025, a new licence condition came into force requiring that English licensed under-12m vessels must now have installed a functioning type-approved I-VMS device that transmits data during a trip to sea. These are designed to capture and transmit positional data, as well as reporting device ID, date, time and changes in events such as battery status and data stored.
‘This data will provide valuable insights to the activities of the inshore fleet which, when combined with other data such as that collected by VMS for the over-12m fleet, will give a more complete picture of all activity in our marine environment,’ said Sean Douglas, MMO’s Head of Regulatory Assurance.
‘This will allow us, and others, to make smarter, evidence-based, decisions when it comes to marine development assessments, conservation initiatives such Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and stock protection, regulatory displacement, as well as marine and fisheries management planning, particularly for niche and seasonal fisheries.’
The system is also designed to allow fishmen to track their own activity through an app or web portal, as well as to provide evidence to challenge developments or closed areas and use it as evidence in any compliance or conflict resolution.
More than 80% of industry has purchased and installed a device. Since announcing the new licence condition requirement in March of this year, there has been a continued increase in orders from the small group of fishers still without devices, while more vessels are also submitting data reports.
‘There’s been a really encouraging response from industry and our support team has been working to help them ensure devices are operational and answering general enquiries. The licence condition is an introductory stage to support industry ahead of the Statutory Instrument (SI), due later this year, to support English vessel owners be as prepared as possible for when the legislation comes into force.
Our intention is to ensure vessels have a type-approved device installed and active, and also so we can work with owners and suppliers to address any technical or logistical issues, ahead of the SI being laid,’ Sean Douglas said.
‘I’d like to assure industry that during this period, where we have evidence fishers are taking steps to be compliant, we will take a pragmatic approach to enforcement while arrangements are being made. However, we will take action where necessary to ensure a level playing field.’
