---
id: KB-CS-024
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/use-cases-by-sector/catch-certificates-and-traces-submissions
idioma: en
categoria: casos-por-sector
subcategoria: maritimo
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CS-023, KB-NO-004]
citadoPor: [KB-CS-023, KB-AL-009]
enLaApp: https://app.codecontract.io/cowork
---

# Catch certificates and TRACES submissions

_Preparing, checking and submitting without redoing the work on every consignment._

**Responde a:** catch certificate traces · submit catch certificates to traces · documentation to import fish · fishery product traceability

The catch certificate is the document accompanying fishery products to evidence where they come from and that they were caught legally. Preparing it follows a familiar pattern: a lot of third-party information, deadlines tied to a vessel's arrival, and a submission that has to be right first time.

## What the work consists of

1. **Gather the origin information** — Vessel, area, dates, species and quantities. It comes from the vessel or the supplier, not from you.
2. **Prepare the draft** — This is where missing data shows up, and where you want it to: before submission.
3. **Review before sending** — A person checks the draft. A bad submission costs more than the review.
4. **Submit and keep the receipt** — With its date, which is what proves it went on time.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Keeping the submitted draft and its receipt is not bureaucracy: if there is later a discrepancy about what was declared, you hold the exact document with its date. Reconstructing it afterwards from emails is not the same.

## Frameworks cited

The European regime against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, with its catch certification scheme, and the trade control system used to process it. Exactly what your operation requires — import, re-export, processing — and on what deadlines is confirmed by your adviser or the competent authority.

> [!WARNING]
> Origin information usually comes from a non-EU supplier, and it is the slowest to arrive. Requesting it when the deal is confirmed rather than when preparing the submission is the difference between arriving early and arriving in a rush.

> [!NOTE]
> If you always work with the same suppliers and species, most of the work repeats. Built as a process, each consignment costs a fraction of the first.

**Can it be reviewed before sending?**

Yes, and it should be: the draft is where the gaps show.

**What if a supplier's data is missing?**

The case shows it was requested and when, which is what lets you chase it.

**Is what was submitted kept?**

Yes, with its receipt and date.

## Ejemplos

**An importer prepares each consignment's certificates from scratch and is always missing a supplier detail.**

- Requests origin information when the deal is confirmed, not when preparing the submission
- Builds the consignment as a repeatable process

→ Submissions stop happening at the last minute and the receipt is kept with its date.

**A shipment is held at the border because the catch certificate for that specific batch is missing.**

- Ties the certificate to the consignment on receipt
- Checks what is missing before preparing the shipment
- Keeps your own copy as well as the travelling one

→ The shipment leaves complete and, if something is lost en route, it is reissued without depending on anyone.

**The certificate arrives from the supplier without identifying the consignment.**

- Requests it with the batch reference

→ The document can answer for a specific shipment.

**A review asks about a shipment from a year ago.**

- Keeps the file with its date

→ You answer without reconstructing.

**Consignments from several origins mix in the same shipment.**

- Records which consignments make up each dispatch

→ You can say what came from where.

**The certificate expires before the goods leave.**

- Records its validity on receipt

→ The warning arrives before loading.

**The supplier changes and the history is missing.**

- Keeps your own copy of what was received

→ The change does not leave you with nothing.

**Every shipment is prepared from scratch.**

- Reuses what repeats per destination

→ The second shipment costs half.