Decree-Law No. 35/2019 establishing the sanction regime applied to the commercial maritime fishing activity.

This Decree-Law, consisting of 43 articles divided into six Chapters and one Annex, aims to improve the effectiveness of the legal framework regulating the practice of commercial fishing. The application of the rules of the Common Policy on Fisheries (CFP) to which Portugal is bound aims to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture activities contribute to the long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability of resources. In accordance with those rules, the European Union has established a common regime for the control, inspection and enforcement of fishing activities, including rules against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and that an effective enforcement system is essential of the PCP. It establishes the sanctioning regime applicable to the commercial fishing activity at any stage of production, including processing, marketing, industry, transportation, import, export, re-export and re-importation of fish products, as well as marketing of aquaculture products.
This Decree-Law applies to national persons who operate: a) In the national territory and in the territorial sea; b) in the exclusive economic zone; c) in inland maritime waters, considering as such the waters lying between the natural catch lines of the mouths of rivers, lagoons, artificial harbors and docks and straight baselines; d) in non-maritime inland waters, with the exception of waters covered by the legal regime governing fishing in inland waters; e) on the high seas and waters of the European Union (EU); f) in the framework of fisheries agreements concluded between the EU and third countries or in the context of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) or similar agreements to which the EU is a contracting party or a non-contracting cooperating party. The Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM) is the National Fisheries Authority, responsible for coordinating and carrying out inspections and control on fishing activities as well as for the collection, processing and certification of information related to fishing activities and reporting, cooperation and transmission of information to the European Commission and other European services or bodies, to other MS and, where appropriate, to third countries; to exercise the functions of single focal point under the rules of the CFP, including port State authority and in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, etc.