Fishery Protection Squadron

Fishery Protection Squadron
All three River-class patrol vessels of the Fishery Protection Squadron, HMS Severn, HMS Tyne and HMS Mersey are pictured exercising off the coast of Cornwall.
Active	1379 (ad-hoc) 1891 (official)
Country	England, followed by United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Squadron
Role	Fisheries protection
Size	4 ships as of 2017 (Planned to increase to 5 ships by 2020)
Home port	HMNB Devonport
Ships	HMS Mersey · Severn · Tyne · Clyde
Engagements	Cod Wars,
Website	Royal Navy
Commanders
Commanding Officer	Commander Ian Lynn
Notable commanders	Horatio Nelson – captained HMS Albemarle in 1781

The Fishery Protection Squadron is a front-line squadron of the Royal Navy with responsibility for patrolling the UK's Extended Fisheries Zone. The squadron, with headquarters at Portsmouth Naval Base, are equipped with four River-class patrol vessels; three are based in the UK, while HMS Clyde is based in the Falkland Islands.

The squadron is the oldest front-line squadron in the Royal Navy, and boasts Admiral Lord Nelson amongst those who have served in it. Originally, the squadron was based on the coast of North America, Iceland and the UK, patrolling much of the North Atlantic against French and American incursions. Over the past hundred years it has been slimmed down to follow a more policing-oriented approach, dealing mainly with infringements by civilian fishermen. Despite this, it still has a strong military role, as evidenced in its role in the Cod Wars of the 1960s-70s.

Royal Navy officers assigned to the Fishery Protection Squadron have a secondary role as British Sea Fisheries officers. There is a formal contract between the Ministry of Defence, the Marine and Fisheries Agency and DEFRA that allows the squadron to conduct inspections of all fishing vessels in all UK (excepting Scottish) waters. Fishery Protection Squadron vessels can also stop British fishing vessels in international waters. In the 2008/09 contract year, the squadron spent 700 days at sea on patrol, conducting 1,102 inspections. From the inspections, 231 ships broke UK or EU law. As a result, 144 verbal warnings, 33 written warnings and 10 financial administrative penalties were handed out. The most serious breaches resulted in eight vessels being detained at UK ports. When a vessel is detained, the captain of the squadron ship contacts the DEFRA operation centre in London, which formulates a decision based on information provided to it by ships, aircraft, district fishery inspectors and fishermen, and then relays this decision back to the fishery protection ship.